Broken Vows
by these-dreams-go-on
Summary: Weddings are emotional days for everyone, but for the bride in particular, especially when she's an event planner and even more so when she finds her husband-to-be cheating on her twenty minutes before they're supposed to walk down the aisle. So understandably, Caroline bolts, running away in full gown and nearly getting hit by a taxi carrying Klaus Mikaelson. AU/AH
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Here we go. An extended story of my one shot Wedding Days, which if you've read you pretty much know how this story will end.

Then again, ninety-nine percent of Klaroline stories end with Klaroline and the other one percent have us reduced to sobbing, screaming wrecks.

Also, I own nothing associated with the Vampire Diaries etc.

* * *

It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

Hell, it was supposed to be the happiest _weekend_ of her life.

Caroline had planned everything down to the last detail. She had booked the hotel months in advance and paid in full, she had met her hairstylist and make-up artist personally numerous times and reviewed their work, she had made sure her dress was ready the week before and would be delivered on the eve of the wedding. She had sent out all the invitations herself and chased up all the RSVP's, she had selected every item of food on the menu and the caterers were all people she had worked with before. She had planned for everything except for the one thing that would unravel everything.

Her future mother-in-law Carol Lockwood.

She had always looked down on Caroline and hated that she was engaged to her son, thinking that she wasn't good enough for Tyler.

She had decided that the wedding was going to be _her_ big day.

She'd received one of the invitations, had it copied and sent it to her friends and numerous people not on the list, most of whom had replied affirmative and with several plus ones.

She had promised to contribute towards the expense if her friends were invited and then backed down, leaving Caroline and Tyler to try and find another thousand dollars for the extra guests.

Caroline had several friends with various food allergies and a few vegans thrown into the mix, so she and the caterers had sat down and figured out a delicious alternative for them, only for the manager to ring Caroline two days later and ask why her future mother-in-law had tried to cancel that option.

When confronted, Carol had thrown a fit, stating that all proper weddings had only steak and fish meals, and that anything else was hipster nonsense that would ruin Tyler's big day.

Tyler personally hadn't given a damn about the menu, he'd been happy to sit back and let Caroline organize everything and wasn't about to step in now. So, Caroline had called everyone involved with the wedding and asked them not to accept any orders from Carol regarding changes unless they rang and double-checked with her first.

That was when she found out that her wedding dress had been altered, as per Carol's orders.

She'd had sleeves and several inches to the hem added and it was now too late to make the adjustments without damaging the dress. When Caroline had furiously confronted her, she'd just said,

"Well dear, we couldn't have you looking like trash marrying treasure."

At this point, Liz and Bonnie had had to talk Caroline out of kidnapping Tyler and heading straight to Vegas for an elopement.

But it had got worse.

When Caroline had arrived at the hotel with her bridesmaids, Bonnie and Katherine, it was to find that Carol had taken her reservation in the bridal suite, shrieking two of the bellhops to tears and causing the manager to cave under her threats of bad reviews and public shaming.  
She refused to move out of the suite, claiming that she needed the space for her mental health, to recover from the stress of the wedding. She had booked a single room which she was sure Caroline would find adequate for her and her friends.

But Caroline got the last laugh because the manager was so annoyed and apologetic that he gave her the Presidential suite for free. Apparently he himself had a mother-in-law that he couldn't stand.

So, the night before her wedding, Caroline had thrown a girls-only party that had been crashed by her mom and Bonnie's grandmother Sheila, who had embarrassed them all by proving to be the best dancer and outlasted them all by a good three hours.

She had then insisted on dragging them all down to the garden to watch the sunrise.

"Trust me, you beautiful girl," Sheila had wrapped an arm around her, "You'll want to remember the start of the best day of your life."

* * *

Caroline couldn't sit still, she had to keep moving.

Excitement was coursing through her blood stream.

She was getting _married!_

She squealed with delight and Katherine laughed,

"Chill," she ordered, "We can't have you hopping down the aisle!"

She reached into the neckline of her bridesmaid's dress, which despite Caroline having bought identical dresses for both her and Bonnie, somehow seemed to be slightly tighter and possibly containing a built-in push up bra because, of course Katherine would, and withdrew a joint.

"Want to be nice and calm for the big day?" she offers and Caroline rolls her eyes,

" _Seriously?!_ " she demands, "Do you know how many cops are downstairs right now? And aren't you on some sort of probation anyway?"

Katherine gives a careless shrug and steps out onto the balcony to light up, "Your loss."

"Let her get buzzed," Bonnie calls from across the room, where she was slipping into her shoes,

"It's the only way she'll not be a bitch for the day."

Caroline accepts this with a small smile and practically skips across the room to where Bonnie is sitting, "Is it time to go down yet?"

Or course, as an event planner, Caroline knew the very second she should head down but she was so excited that she hoped her internal clock was wrong.

Bonnie gives her an understanding smile and is about to answer when there's a knock on the door,

"Come in." she calls, standing up and brushing down her dress unnecessarily.

Her step-father Steven walks into the room and stops dead upon seeing her,

"You look stunning, Caroline." He tells her with moisture in his eyes and she beams, hurrying over to kiss his cheek,

"Where's daddy?" she asks, "Is it time for me to go down?"

He suddenly looks uncomfortable and clears his throat, "Uh…is your mother here?"

She shakes her head and frowns, "What's wrong?"

He shuffles his feet and plays with the cufflinks on his sleeves, "Um, Care…Carol is throwing a tantrum, she says that your father can't walk you down the aisle because…well, gays can't legally get married so it's bad luck and he's just doing it to make a statement so…"

Caroline blinks three times in rapid succession and waits silently to make sure that she had heard correctly,

"Are you serious?!" she asks incredulously, "Because if this is a joke, it is _so_ not funny."

Steven's shoulders sank, "I wish, Billy walked away so he wouldn't lose his temper and he told me not to speak to you because he didn't want to stress you on your big day but…he's your father, Care."

"And walking me down the aisle," she assures him, squeezing his hand comfortingly,

"Let me go speak to Ty about reigning in his mother."

Tyler was two floors down, in the groom suite which was practically next to the bridal suite and had caused Katherine no small amusement trying to think of all the Bates Motel, Lannister and other incest jokes she could come up with. Bonnie had eventually had to threaten to throw her favorite shoes out the window just to shut her up.

The door to Tyler's suite is slightly ajar and she guesses that the groomsmen, Matt and Stefan, had left it that way so they wouldn't have to remember their keys.

"Ty?"

For some reason, she'd intended to call his name but it had come out as a whisper, and she can't figure out why.

Until she moves deeper into the room and her eyes find her fiancé.

In the very center of the room, with his pants around his ankles and some random brunette on her knees in front of him.

At first glance, she's sure she's mistaken, that her stressed out and overexcited mind is playing tricks on her.

This woman is probably a seamstress, taking care of some last minute adjustments for Tyler.

Or perhaps she's a nurse and her fiancé, her boyfriend of ten years, somehow cut himself manscaping and she's stitching him up.

She vaguely recalls seeing this girl, that Tyler had mentioned her a few weeks back, he hadn't mentioned her profession but maybe she was a nurse.

But when the woman moans and Tyler sinks his fingers into her hair- her rather thick and beautiful hair, Caroline can't help but note. She knows exactly what she's seeing.

Her fiancé is getting a blow job _twenty minutes_ before he's meant to be marrying her.

And by a woman who's wearing a _white_ dress.

Caroline's stomach flips violently and she clutches it, retching as she wheels around, staggering into the wall and trying to dig her nails into the plaster in a failed attempt to keep herself upright.

Her throat is burning and she's certain that she's going to vomit and ruin her dress.

Which would be fitting considering.

There's a gasp and she hears Tyler shout her name but as if from a distance.

She gasps for air and pushes herself off the wall, breaking a nail and tripping over her gown as she stumbles into the hallway.

Both elevators are in use and she needs to get outside now, that's all she can think about, so she almost crawls to the stairwell, falling against the door and only opening it enough to slip inside where she leans against the closed door for strength.

Their wedding day.

It was their _wedding day_.

The wedding she had had to organize almost single-handedly, she had chosen the flowers, the color scheme, the food, the outfits for the bridesmaids and groomsmen, hell, she'd even picked out Tyler's tuxedo for him because he'd have left it to the last minute otherwise!

She had toured ten different venues, all of which she'd worked with before but wanted to see from a customer's perspective. She had sampled enough menus that she'd needed an extra two hours at the gym and even chosen Tyler's favorite flavors for the wedding cake.

All her fiancé had had to do was turn up the day before, not get too drunk and make it to the actual wedding without cheating on her.

Had that seriously been too much to ask?!

Caroline sniffs and clenches her hands into fists. She's angry now, angry and hurt and she wants to get away from this place.

Before she even realizes what she's doing, she's racing down the stairs and out the door, into a side garden of the hotel that opened onto a tiny stretch of woodlands.

Her skirt somehow makes it into her hands and she's running, faster than she had ever run before. The wind is pulling at her veil and her skirt billows out behind her, tears blur her eyes and her chest heaves under the tight gown.

She has no idea where she's going as the skirt tears against the sticks and fallen logs of the woodland and her veil catches on the tree branches. The sunlight dapples through the trees and blinds her and all she can do is keep going and going until…

 _Screech_

* * *

Why the hell had his family ever left London?

Bad things always happened when his family left London.

And he wasn't even being facetious, he could trace the Mikaelson family linage back to the Viking invasion of England and when his great ancestor and his men had left London to wage war on Wessex, a king had lain siege to the town and captured it.

In the Middle Ages his family had left London to join the York's and support them against the Tudor insurgency. That had ended with two imprisonments, three beheadings and a severe loss in fortune.

In the twentieth century, his great-grandfather had been best friends with King Edward VIII and had made him promise not to make any decisions about Wallis Simpson before speaking to him first. With this promise given, his ancestor had gone to Bath for his health and the King had abdicated the throne the very next day.

His family had been exiled from the Royal Court after that mistake and while they kept their family home in Holland Park, they had moved to America two generations back to try and escape the scandal and shame.

Still, the curse lingered. They had left London a mere hour before the Blitz had begun and now, Niklaus Mikaelson was waiting impatiently in the taxi rank at Richmond airport with his duffel bag in hand and wondering if London was going to sink into the Thames in the next day or two.

Although this time, he doubted the curse would hit the city, more likely it would hit him instead.

After all, he had gone to London to seek refuge from his broken heart.

His broken heart and his asshole of an older brother who'd thought nothing of shagging his girlfriend.

His older brother whom he had trusted with his life.

His younger brother Kol, he'd almost expected to try and shag one of his girlfriend's at some point, Kol would shag anything that moved, male or female but Elijah, he would have never suspected him capable of such an act if he hadn't bloody walked in on them in the _middle_ of it.

He'd walked in and walked straight out again, gone back to his apartment, grabbed his passport, a duffel bag with some random clothes thrown in and gone straight to Richmond airport and bought the first flight out of the States.

Which is how he'd ended up in Prague and had to catch a connecting flight to London and then realized that he'd left the keys to the family home in his apartment.

Fortunately, his younger sister had heard of what happened and arranged for the gardener to meet him with his set of keys.

He'd bounced around the old and empty house for a few weeks, immersed himself in the rainy, grey London with the tube and red buses instead of taxis and cars. Endless cups of tea instead of coffee. Pubs instead of bars and most importantly, no women or brothers to break his heart.

Especially because his phone hadn't bloody worked the entire time he was over there and he'd blocked his brother on all forms of social media and communication.

He could have stayed there as well.

He designed graphic novels and there wasn't really much he couldn't have managed with a few skype calls into the office and the purchase of the necessary materials in London, but his mother had sent him a ticket for a first class flight back to Richmond and an invitation to family luncheon the very next day.

Apparently, she'd decided that he and Elijah had been at odds for long enough.

He'd thought of telling her no but he figured that if he had, she simply would have flown Elijah out to London, which would have ruined the house for him and inconvenienced his brother who would have been forced to take time off from work.

And he was an orthopedic surgeon, so when he skipped out on work, people tended to die.

So here he was now, sitting in a taxi, lost in his own thoughts as he was being driven through every backstreet of Richmond by a cabbie who idiotically assumed that his British accent meant he was a tourist and not a long time citizen.

He's about to rip him a new one when a flash in the corner of his eye catches his attention.

And he wonders if he's not dreaming because there's a bride in a wedding dress running across a park.

He figures it must be a photo shoot or a movie scene and watches curiously as she acts as though she's running for her life.

But then he realizes that she is running for her life and apparently not looking where she's going.

" _Stop!_ " he bellows at the driver who is on his phone, and doesn't see the woman until the last second, swerving violently to avoid colliding with her.

He doesn't even wait until the taxi's finished moving before he's unbuckling his seat belt, scrambling out of the backseat onto the quiet road.

"Bloody Hell!" he murmurs as the woman sways on her feet and sinks down onto the gutter, the hem of her skirt stained from the dirt.

Cautiously, he crouches down in front of her, "Are you alright?" he asks gently, "Are you hurt?"

She laughs and chokes, holding the back of her hand to her mouth, "I'm sorry…I wasn't…"

The driver, after hanging up the phone and clearly worried about litigation storms over in a self-righteous fury,

"You _stupid_ bitch!" he shouts, pointing threateningly at her, "You ran in front of my car so if you're hurt that's your…"

"Sod off," Nik snaps at him, "She's not injured and your bloody taxi's fine."

The man raises his finger to the sky as if to begin another rant and Nik feels his blood rising,

"Leave her alone or I will personally call your company and complain about you making calls while driving and intentionally taking me the most indirect route possible." He grabs his wallet,

"I'm only paying what it would have cost if you'd gone the right way." He warns and the man is blusteringly red with fury,

"Piece of pommy shit." He growls and Nik raises an eyebrow,

"Can you even _spell_ pommy?" he asks, feigning surprise and the driver stomps to the trunk, throws his duffel bag onto the side of the road and speeds off.

Nik turns back to the woman and sees that she hasn't moved and the tears are still streaming down her face, although she isn't sobbing or gasping for air after her sprint so he figures that she's either rather fit or in shock.

He rummages through his duffel bag and sees the expensive handkerchief that Elijah had given each of their siblings last flu season when they'd left tissues all around his house. They'd never used them and he's grateful that he'd forgot to take it out of his duffel bag.

He crouches back down in front of the bride and reaches for her hand, noting the soft skin and manicured nails,

"Here" he closes her fingers, "Handkerchief"

"Thank-you." She whispers politely and holds it to her eyes, dabbing at them and giving herself a little shake before she starts looking around her, staring down at the gutter as though she was trying to figure out how she'd got there.

If Nik had to guess, he'd say her day had gone very badly wrong.

She turns her head, looking left and right up and down the road as if worried about traffic and he wonders how far she had run,

"Don't worry," he assures her, "We're in a pretty quiet area, damn taxi driver heard my accent and thought I was a tourist…bastard."

She has a pretty laugh, and an even prettier smile which he probably shouldn't be noticing.

"So…" he glances down at her wedding dress, which he personally thought was hideous but it looked lovely on her,

"Is there someone I can call or…?"

"I walked in on my fiancé getting a blow job from a girl he's only known for three weeks twenty minutes before we were meant to get married" she explains in a rush, offering him back the handkerchief which he waves away, figuring the least he could do was let her keep it.

She closes her fingers around it again and then starts tugging on her veil, trying to ease it out of her golden locks.

Well.

Nice to know he wasn't the only person in Richmond getting his heart stomped on by those he had trusted.

He comes to a decision and grabs his duffel bag, climbing to his feet,

"Okay, I know a restaurant not far from here that does great coffee."

Of course, caffeine was probably the last thing she needed but he doubted that, as an American, she would drink proper tea, especially the decaffeinated kind.

He holds out a hand to her and she blushes sweetly, "Look, it's not that I'm not grateful but you don't have to…I'm sure you have somewhere to be."

Not really, he wasn't due back at work til Monday and the only thing he had to do in his apartment was dust, some laundry and restock his fridge.

She doesn't know that though, she probably thinks he's a right prick trying to score on her broken heart.

"Actually, I just got back from holiday after a really nasty breakup with my girlfriend" he tries to give her a compassionate smile, which wasn't one of his most practised expressions, "I know what it's like to be absolutely and completely devastated and when I was sobbing in the gutter…well the fire-escape of my apartment, I really wanted someone to talk to"

In truth, he'd done his crying in the indoor swimming pool of the Holland Park mansion but that confession would probably make him sound pretentious beyond belief.

She bites her lip and considers him, appraising him with aqua eyes that he can't decide if they are more blue or green. She slips her hand into his and he pulls her up slowly and gently, making sure she's steady on her feet before releasing her.

"It's about five minutes that way," he jerks his head, down the road,

"One of those industrial warehouse makeovers."

She looks about, dazed as if trying to figure out where they are and he realises that he's probably setting off every alarm in her head right now.

"I swear I'm not a serial killing psychopath" he adds jokingly when he sees her hesitation but she laughs and holds out her hand,

"I'm Caroline by the way,"

"Caroline Forbes."

He grins, "Niklaus Mikaelson."

* * *

A/N- Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N- So I've changed the identity of the woman Tyler cheated with and chosen another Vampire Diaries character but they'll fit into the story I promise.

* * *

They're still two blocks away from Sage's restaurant when Nik's shoe kicks a stray half-smashed beer bottle out of the way and he realizes just how sketchy he must seem.

He- a complete stranger- had idiotically chosen to take the shortcut which he knew so well and had forgotten led past a burnt out warehouse and down an alleyway that might as well be called 'Body Dumping lane'.

There wasn't even anyone nearby to hear the poor girl scream.

He wonders if he can assure her twice in an hour that he's not a serial killer or a psychopath without pretty much confirming that he was both but when he turns to face her he sees that she's utterly unfazed by her surroundings.

So, three options, she thinks she could take him in a fair fight, lived around dodgy areas like this or had just had such a bad day that being murdered in an alleyway wouldn't be the least dignified thing that had happened to her.

Seeing the muscles in her arms, the speed with which she'd run and the hem of her wedding dress now stained grey and brown with dirt, he reckons it's a combination of options one and three.

Poor girl.

He used to think that the only people who were stupid enough to be cheated on were idiots with poor taste in lovers, ugly, or lacking in some characteristic that made them unattractive to their partner or undeserving of love.

Of course, that had been before he'd walked in on his brother and his girlfriend, who'd certainly seemed happy with him right up until that moment. He'd racked his brain trying to come up with a reason but he couldn't figure out what he'd done to warrant being cheated on.

And the woman beside him, Caroline, he'd only known her for a few minutes but he didn't think she was in anyway lacking.

She was beautiful, with proud but friendly eyes and perhaps she was a bit of a drama queen, having run away from her wedding and obviously she didn't have the best taste in wedding dresses, but he had no doubt that she hadn't deserved to be cheated on the very day of her nuptials.

Maybe cheaters were just assholes incapable of being satisfied?

"It's just a little further." he assures her, his heart melting in relief when the exit of the alleyway shows them to be in the midst of a hipster daydream. The warehouse blocks had been converted into trendy cafes, art-spaces, restaurants and offices.

She nods and follows him so calmly that he wonders if she's not in a state of shock.

Sage's restaurant, named Massolit after her favourite novel, was a warehouse that had been converted. The front wall had been replaced with glass, providing excellent light and view for the patrons. Inside, the brickwork was exposed on the left wall, where the kitchen, wine cellar and bar were and on the right, a vertical wall garden had been painstakingly set up, with grape vines that twisted up to the ceiling and a water feature that splashed underneath to add ambiance and provide for the plants.

Sage loved her restaurant and only ever left it for family events, so when he walks in the door and is recognized by one of the waitresses, he knows that he won't have to wait long for his sister-in-law to appear. Which is good because the many patrons are staring at Caroline and then to him, the man obviously not dressed for a wedding.

Sage has a smile on her face when she emerges from the kitchen which falters when she takes in the scene in front of her and the weary expression of acceptance that he knows all too well replaces it.

Poor Sage had issues with anxiety, and, in the worst judgement call since Helen ran away with Paris, had married into his high maintenance family.

Sometimes he wonders if she didn't go into restaurants instead of a café just so she would have a steady supply of drug dealers on hand to keep her stocked in pot.

"Um…" she falters and stares at Caroline, making Nik feel slightly protective of the poor girl before remembering that Sage was his family by marriage not by blood, "Okay…is there a backstory to this scenario?

He's about to answer when Caroline jumps in first, "He just found me on the street," she explains, "I'm not his wife."

Sage takes this and rolls with it because this isn't even the weirdest thing she's ever seen him do so he puts a hand on Caroline's back and begins guiding her to the metal table in the right corner where there was a support beam so he knew that there was a great view but also they would be slightly hidden away for privacy.

"Two Irish coffees, thanks Sage."

His new friend takes the seat by the wall and gathers up her skirts, lifting them up to sit down and he's reminded of a period drama, imagining her in some silver silk medieval dress with red sleeves and skirt. She raises her head to look around and he admires the stretch of her long neck,

"This place is beautiful," she murmurs and he nods, "Sage planned this place for years and worked herself into an early grave getting it set up."

And he and his family had helped. None of them had ever seen a business being built before, not from the ground up anyway and had found it fascinating, especially since they could throw money at the venture and consider any loss tax deductible.

To this day, Sage still informed them of every going on in the restaurant, menu changes, events, new business partners and stockholders, and they enjoyed seeing her passion.

Rebekah had even thought about getting a job waitressing until she'd realized just how unpleasant having a job in customer service and hospitality would be.

"And she's your friend?" she asked casually and he wonders if she's fishing for details,

"Sister-in-law," he smirked, "Which is why she took you in her stride, sadly, this is not the weirdest thing she's seen from my family."

Sage approaches with a tray in one hand, and catches the tail end of that conversation,

"His younger brother Kol once walked in here hand-in-hand with an orangutan named Bobby," she announces, catching the woman's eye with a wink,

"To this day we still don't know where that creature came from."

Caroline giggles and her smile is stunning, pink lips and white teeth, and Sage smiles back automatically,

"This is red velvet lamington," she tells her, placing a plate in front of her with a giant, blood red dessert with a hint of chocolate underneath and Nik's mouth waters.

"I'm guessing you could use some chocolate and sugar right now."

Bless her sweet heart, but he still catches her wrist as she goes to leave, "None for your favourite brother-in-law?" he teases with a hint of hope as Caroline lifts her fork,

Sage only quirks an eyebrow, "The last time I gave you chocolate and coffee, you grabbed a permanent marker from god-knows-where and did that to my restaurant" she points to the side of the bar where the stainless steel had been turned into the London skyline from their house in Holland Park. Personally, he thought it fitted in with the scheme perfectly and gave the restaurant a link to his family. Heck, he'd even thought of colouring it in as well.

Caroline calls it beautiful and he looks up at his sister-in-law with a triumphant grin but she only snorts and complains that she'd wanted him to contribute a painting, not graffiti.

He responds with the tried and true phrase that you can't always get what you want but when he turns back to Caroline, he sees that she's looking down at her dress and biting her lip.

Damn.

Were the water works about to appear?

Should he get her more dessert, ice-cream? Women liked ice-cream when they were upset right?

He has no idea, but looks to Sage for help.

And Caroline does too.

"Hey, would you have a pair of scissors I could borrow?" she asks and Nik is completely lost but Sage seems to understand where she's going,

"Yeah, but are you sure honey?"

"I walked in on my fiancé getting a blow job from a girl he's only known for three weeks twenty minutes before we were meant to get married" she explains and despite hearing that for the second time, Nik is still surprised.

He wonders if the blow job girl was really, really hot, even though Caroline had the blonde, tanned and pretty thing down pat.

She and Sage walk off hand-in-hand and Nik is left sipping on his coffee and checking his phone for the first time in weeks. He has several texts and missed calls from Elijah which he deletes without even reading and a few from his ex-girlfriend who he won't even think about and when Sage returns to the table, he hands her his phone,

"Can you delete any messages from her for me?" he requests and she doesn't ask a single question, just tapping on his screen,

"I'm going to delete all the photos as well, okay?" she offers and he grins, "Thanks."

She smirks and leans against the table with her hip, stealing a sip of his coffee,

"You know, I've seen you pick up girls in some strange places in my time, but a bride on her wedding day?! That is some next level shit."

He rolls his eyes, "Her fiancée cheated on her, I'm pretty sure I'm not stepping on any toes and besides, I'm not picking her up I was just in the right place at the right time to help her out."

Sage's humph of disbelief is a little insulting but when Caroline walks out of her office, he admits that maybe she's not entirely wrong.

She's cut off the skirt and sleeves of her ridiculous dress and is left with something unrecognizable as a wedding dress.

Her hem is now an inch above the knee, revealing long tanned legs for days that end in white satin heels and her dress was clearly tailored to her because it looks like she was sown into it, it's hugging her body so tightly.

Not that he's complaining.

She catches him checking out her legs and he feels like a creep but she smiles shyly and sits back down without protest, sipping her coffee and taking a bite of the lamington, her eyes closing as she gives a little moan and, he is definitely a creep undeserving of dessert.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks carefully, hoping to help without having her burst into tears on him, but she only takes another bite of the lamington before glancing around to see if Sage is watching and offering him the fork. He takes it with surprise but helps himself to a piece, ignoring the stain of lipstick on the metal.

"I'm not sure," she answers, "I mean, you saved my life and got me off the road so I feel as though I owe you an explanation but I also feel that talking might lead me to hunting down my ex and stabbing him with this fork"

Her eyes flare playfully and he chuckles, amused at her humour, "That could be the caffeine and adrenaline talking"

He drains his coffee and one of the servers brings them a jug of water and two glasses,

"You're going to leave him then?" he prompts next and can only hope that Sage will intervene when he gets too damn obvious.

But she's a beautiful woman, clearly strong considering the day she'd endured and hell, he'd be one of her better boyfriends by default.

"Probably…" she confesses, "I'm not up to date on my Emily Post but when a guy cheats on you not even an hour before the wedding, I'm pretty sure it's over…though that might just be the anger and adrenaline talking but…it was our wedding day! Who cheats on the day of their wedding?!"

She'd raised her voice during the last part to emphasize her incredulity and been overheard by a nearby table, because apparently losing seventy percent of the wedding dress hadn't stopped them being watched.

"A fucking asshole!" one of the other customers answered and she nodded in their direction, her blonde hair flying as she turns back to him,

"Right, I mean if you're having doubts call off the wedding but I don't even know if this was the first time…I mean, he met this girl three freaking weeks ago, who manages to have an affair with someone they've known for three weeks?!" she takes a breath and drops her shoulders,

"Sorry, I shouldn't be ranting to you, I haven't even thanked you for taking care of me or…"

Nik hands her back the fork, "I know you were nearly hit by a taxi only an hour ago sweetheart but I think getting away from that wedding was probably a good move, besides" he continues cheekily, "I got to rescue a beautiful damsel-in-distress, my ego is through the roof right now"

She laughs and shakes her head, leaning back in her chair and glancing up through lowered lashes.

He tries to ignore how much this feels like a first date.

But perhaps it could be a prelude to one?

Or maybe they're moving too fast? Just two people who united over shared experience and are attracted to each other because they're both good looking and heartbroken?

She finishes her coffee and sighs, "Well, I'm glad I had a knight to rescue me, even if his armour does need a little shining"

She leans over and tugs at his grey Henley, making him laugh and inwardly gloat at how easily she moved into his personal space.

Okay, he's not the only one flirting.

But she's clearly still emotional because her face falls again.

"Although I'm beginning to wish you had a sword I could borrow to use on my fiancé, or that tramp Jules" she mutters darkly and suddenly Nik is choking on his water, struggling to breathe as he grabs a napkin and covers his mouth.

"Jules?" he gasps, barely managing to speak, "Not Jules Woods?"

Caroline's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "You know her?"

"Yeah" he tells her when he can breathe again, "Remember when I mentioned my ex-girlfriend and the nasty break-up…"

"You dated Jules?" she asked, stunned and disbelieving,

"I did" he admitted, "Until she cheated on me…with my older brother"

They stared at each other speechless before he leaned over and grabbed her hand,

"Come on sweetheart" he said, leading her out of the restaurant, "I think this calls for some hard liquor and Sage will cut us off way before we're ready"

"Tequila" she suggested as they hurried across the road, "Wait…screw it, do you know any place that does Russian vodka?"

He grinned, "Follow me"

* * *

 _From Sage: 'Nik's back but he's busy and not checking any messages from you so I'd wait til tomorrow to speak to him'_

Elijah rereads the message on his phone in the hope that he was mistaken and it was actually suggesting that he call his little brother immediately.

Unfortunately, it was definitely his sister-in-law advising him to leave Niklaus alone until lunch tomorrow.

When they would be in their family home in full earshot of their mother and have their every action monitored.

He found himself wondering whether he could skip out on work and head over to Nik's apartment, yes he'd probably have to come right back in to get a broken nose seen to, or at the very least a black eye but perhaps punching him in the face would make his brother feel better?

Certainly, it'd make Elijah feel a little less guilty.

But just as he's about to check with Charlie whether he could offload his patients to him, Zach's catches them on his way from the cafeteria, "Just got a call," he tells them as they follow him like ducklings after their mother, "Wedding day gone wrong according to the paramedics."

When they step into the A&E it's chaotic.

A man in a tux is being wheeled in shouting up a storm in his pain with two other men, bleeding from the nose and mouth respectively walking alongside him.

Charlie and Maggie go to treat tux man number one while he and Zach head out to the bay to find a young woman being wheeled in by Luke,

"Katherine Pierce, twenty-five, suffered a blow to her head, possible concussion and also dislocated shoulder," he reports dutifully, and the pretty brunette in the pastel pink dress is glowering furiously and Elijah is wondering what happened when she is put in the bed next to tux man one and tries to lunge towards him,

"Tyler Lockwood," she shrieks as Zach restrains her, "I am going to fucking kill…"

" _Katherine_!"

A middle aged woman with short blonde hair appears at the bed,

"I am going to have eighteen alibis the night you go missing!" the woman, Katherine, amends her statement and the middle aged woman nods,

"Thank-you."

"Elizabeth Forbes?!" another woman- wearing a white dress but who couldn't possibly be the bride, walks across the A&E, but the first woman doesn't even flinch,

"Carol, your son cheated on my daughter twenty minutes before their wedding, and I didn't _see_ Katherine attack Tyler, no-one did."

"Ooh." Maggie says as she and Charlie try to examine Tyler's injuries, and Zach smirks,

"Would not have been my choice," he comments and Elijah smirks as he begins assessing Katherine's injuries.

"You hit your head?" he asks and she pouts,

"When I went looking for the bride, I found Tyler still pulling up his pants, I called him some names and he decided he didn't like that, so he slapped me and I caught the corner of the drawers as I went down."

"You _hit_ a _girl_!" Tux man two, blonde guy with broken nose shouts, "What the hell, Ty?!"

Tyler, who's still groaning, still tries to defend himself,

"It's not a girl," he argues, "It's _Katherine_ , and she broke my pelvis!"

"Now, now," Charlie says, as the ultrasound is wheeled over, "We'll have to check before confirming that the pelvis is…"

"Oh it's broken," Katherine announces, "It'll be a superior and inferior pubic ramus fracture if I did it right."

"Katherine," Elizabeth sighs and Elijah pages Shahir, because he's worried about her head injury,

"Right," she clears her throat, "I mean, I have no idea what happened after Tyler hit me, it's all a blur!"

Zach smirks at her tone of faux-innocence and Carol stomps her foot,

"Matt and Stefan saw something!" she shrieks, pointing at tux man two and three, "Look what Katherine did to them when they were pulling her off my baby boy!"

Stefan who seems to have bitten his tongue, is perched on a bed now and spitting into a bed pan,

"Nope," he manages, lisping heavily, "Didn't happen."

Matt smirks, coming to stand beside Katherine and squeezes her hand, "Stef and I slipped on a bar of soap." He tells Elizabeth who only rolls her eyes,

"Right well, half the local precinct is at the reception but I'm sure one of them would be happy to take your statement once it's…plausible."

Carol gives a scream of frustration that has Elijah's ears ringing and thankfully follows her son as Charlie wheels him upstairs for a CT. Elijah puts a cloth over Katherine's shoulder, and takes it firmly,

"So…" he began, looking for a way to distract her from the imminent pain, "Are you a med student?"

"Hmmm?" she turns to look up at him, "Oh, because of the injury, no…" she smirks,

"It's my go-to signature move for dirt bags undeserving of life."

Matt is sitting beside Stefan as he has his nose tended to,

"At Mystic Falls hospital they call that the Pierce Pelvic injury."

"Speaking of," Elizabeth sighs, "Katherine, are you still on probation?"

Katherine gives a little cry of pain as Elijah fixes her dislocated shoulder, but she's smiling again in seconds, "Nope," she announces, "Got off yesterday."

"Wonderful," she sighs, "Then I'm going to join Bonnie and try to locate my daughter, oh…and hand it over."

Katherine pouts but reaches down, lifting up the skirt of her long dress and Elijah admires the view he gets of her cleavage and then his eyes dart down to her thigh where a black garter sits, holding a rolled up zip-locked bag of joints.

That would explain why she was so unconcerned about her injuries.

She's admitted overnight and in the chaos of the day, Elijah doesn't see her again even as the hospital staff spreads the news of the wedding day disaster like wildfire and has many of them debating over whether a pelvic fracture was justifiable considering the crime.

His shift finishes at eight and he's heading out when he decides to check on her, knocking on the door to the private room and stepping inside.

Katherine Pierce is lying in the bed, her eyes glaring at the television and the phone in front of her in rapid succession, she's redone her make-up and fixed her hair and he notes for the second time since meeting her that she is beautiful.

"I'm just checking in on you," he explains, hurriedly, as he approaches the bed and rests a hand on the rails, "How're you feeling?"

She has a sulky pout on her glistening lips and he reminds himself of how many rules he'd be breaking to kiss them,

"Like my best friend's wedding day was ruined, her ex-boyfriend hit me and I injured my two ex-boyfriends when they tried to drag me off him. On top of that, Caroline was missing for like the entire day and I'm having trouble finding her because I've got fucking unionized oompa-loompas striking in my skull."

Her rather colourful description for her headache has him chuckling as he checks her chart,

"The nurse will bring you painkillers and I can prescribe you something for tomorrow?" he offers but she shakes her head, "I'll be on best friend duty tomorrow and I can't do that and be high off my skull…well, not on prescription meds anyway."

Recreational drug user then.

"Perhaps you could tell me what happened today?" he suggests, looking for a reason to keep talking to her, "The rumours I'm hearing from the nurse range from hopefully inaccurate to urban legend."

She rolls her eyes, "Caroline went to talk to her fiancé, and I followed after her because our suite was out of champagne. I got there just after she left and found Tyler in a comprising position with a skank who bailed pretty damn fast when I started telling them both exactly what I thought of them."

She leans back and closes her eyes momentarily, "The rest you heard when we were brought in. How's he doing by the way?"

He shrugs, "Last I heard, he'd been discharged with a lot of pain meds, a walking frame and unlikely to be having sex with anyone in the immediate future."

She chuckles with pride and stretches her arms above her head, the hospital gown lifting up and Elijah's sharp eyes trace the faint outline of her breasts.

"Serves him right," she sighs as she rolls her shoulders, "Him and that slut Jules."

Elijah's hand tightens on the metal rail of the bed and he can feel the blood leaving his face,

"Jules?" he echoes her, "Not Jules Woods?"

Katherine blinks in surprise, "You know her?"

He clears his throat and looks away, to the hall outside where a nurse is walking past,

"She dated my brother recently."

She snorts, "I'm guessing they broke up?"

"Oh," she adds, when she sees his discomfort and puts the rest of the story together in her mind.

"Well…aren't you a filthy manwhore!"

She crosses her arms, turns away in a clear dismissal and Elijah leaves the room with a strange sinking sensation in his stomach.

* * *

A/N- Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

"Nine shots of vodka on the wall,"

"Nine shots of vodka…" Caroline warbled, her voice off-key and cracking before disappearing into the warm night.

She's making her way up a street, away from the bar that they'd only left because last call had been enforced with a bouncer. She has an arm draped over the shoulder of the guy she'd met only that day and considering how drunk she was, it'd be a miracle if she could remember his name in the morning.

But for now, at least, she knows that he's called Klaus, and he's smirking as he contradicts her,

"Pretty sure it was eleven." He slurs and she points a finger in his face,

"No," she argues, "The last two were _tequila_!"

He squints and tilts his head back in thought, the broken street lamp casting his face into definition before hiding it again.

"Why am I thinking we had fifteen shots?" he finally asks, swaying a little and they stagger away from the road, she shrugs, "We didn't count the jager."

"Bloody hell," He moans, running his free hand over his face, "Right, home time."

"No," she pouts, "More drinks!"

He shakes his head, "Unless you have a twin I don't know about, we should probably stop drinking now."

"Well, I don't want to go home," she grumbles, "Drunk, alone and humiliated."

He moans in sympathy and they stumble a few more feet along the path before she wonders if they have any destination in mind.

"Wanna crash at my place?" he offers, reaching into his pocket and pulling out keys that he drops almost instantly and she has to release him so he can bend down to pick them up,

"Yeah?" she drawls, running a hand through her now messy hair, "But don't you have…stuff to do?"

He frowns and looks around, "S'middle of the night?"

"No…" she waves her hands, "Tomorrow."

He snorts, "Family lunch, but that'll be at…lunchtime."

"Oh!" she smiles sloppily and nods enthusiastically, "Okay, but we're not doing anything…anything."

He chortles and waves wildly at a passing taxi, stumbling backwards when it speeds past them,

"I don't think we're at legal consenting, consensual" he smacks his lips as he tries to think,

"No anything." He finishes in agreement.

* * *

The taxi driver didn't understand Klaus' accent, so Caroline had to provide translation before dozing in her seat, coming awake with a sharp jolt when the taxi hit the brakes sharply in front of an apartment building. Klaus is clumsily slapping money into the driver's hand, getting snapped at when it turns out he's handing over British pounds. When the driver finally releases them, not handing over any change, Caroline clambers out into the now chilly night, shivering as Klaus staggers out behind her.

There's an after-hours keypad and he punches in the code twice before getting it right and ushering her into the entryway. She blearily notes the art-deco wallpaper and faded red velvet runner carpet as he ushers her to the elevators.

"Do you have a couch?" she mumbles as she leans against the mirror, covering her mouth as she yawns and he nods, "Yeah, it's bloody comfortable."

"Good," she blinks as the elevator dings and the doors slide open, "Dibs."

He frowns and shuffles to his door, "Not a chance."

She wants to argue but is really starting to feel tired so she waits until they're in the apartment and she can see the couch, striding over quickly and flopping down onto it.

"Dibs!" she says again, triumphantly and he groans,

"I cannot let you sleep on the couch," he protests, heading into the open plan kitchen and running the tap, "My mother will literally kill me."

She yawns theatrically and closes her eyes, "Goodnight."

He puts a glass of water on the stand beside the couch, "You know, it opens out into a bed."

She stretches and realizes just how soft it feels under her, "It's pretty comfortable already."

But when he returns with blankets, she- reluctantly- rolls off the couch and helps him pull it out, making the bed while he hands her some old shirt and sweatpants to change into.

She stands in his bathroom, looks down at what remained of her wedding dress and contemplated just flushing it down the toilet.

But that might block the plumbing.

So instead, she kicks it to the corner and wanders out barefoot, not even worried about how tired and messy she must look, even as Klaus gives her a once over,

"Need anything?" he offers, his voice rough with tiredness and she shakes her head.

"Thanks," she murmurs as he turns off the light, "It…means a lot."

He grins, "You're welcome."

Weirdly, considering everything that had happened that day, in spite of the fact that she was staying the night with some guy she'd only known a few hours, she felt safe and the moment her hid hit the pillow, she fell into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Unfortunately, when she finally woke up the next morning, after a few false starts where she'd opened her eyes long enough to feel confused and passed out again, she stretched, rolled over and shrieked when she saw nothing but sky and the streets below.

Scrambling, she hit the back of the couch and groaned with relief when she confirmed that she was safe on solid ground.

She was just next to a floor to ceiling window.

An amazing one too.

But not first thing in the morning.

"Sorry, love."

Running her hands through her hair, she twists around to see Klaus in the kitchen, brewing coffee,

"I forgot to warn you last night, I've fallen asleep on that thing one too many times and woken up fearing for my life."

She laughs and recovers, chirping 'Good morning' as brightly as possible in her hungover state as she padded over to the kitchen area.

"Sleep well?" she teased and he scowled,

"Not in the bloody least" he grumbled, "Even now I'm expecting my mother to storm through that door and disown me for having let a woman talk me into giving her the couch"

"Talk you into it?" she smirked, "I stole your whole day from you and cost you at least one hundred bucks worth of alcohol I wasn't going to kick you out of your own bed as well."

"I wouldn't say you stole my day," he argued as he handed her the coffee,

"You certainly made it interesting."

She smiled and stared resolutely into her cup, trying to ignore the fact that Klaus' sleep pants were slung low on his hips and his sleeveless shirt showed off a hint of tattoo.

And he didn't look half-bad when he was still rumpled with sleep.

Desperate not to think about this however, after all, she was still wearing her engagement ring, she stared at the clock on the oven,

"I should probably check in with my family," she sighed mournfully and reluctantly,

"If I'm MIA any longer my mom's going to have a BOLO out on me."

Caroline was surprised she hadn't done so already actually, her mom had always tended to fall back on police training when it came to mothering her, interrogation techniques, examining her like she was a piece of evidence, and when she couldn't find her during her teenage years, asking her deputies to keep an eye out for her.

She'd got a little better but her go to parenting method was to give Caroline space whenever she got emotional, but considering she had run away from her own wedding and been out of contact for almost twenty-four hours now, she was probably starting to worry.

"Well," Klaus said, patting himself down before remembering that he was in his pyjamas,

"My phone has a British simcard in it, so that'll be useless, but I can drive you wherever you need to go," he promised, taking her by the shoulders and shifting her three steps sideways, "Once I remember where I left my bloody keys."

She smirked, "You sure the alcohol is out of your system?"

He stopped mid-rummage through a stack of junk-mail, "Not really, but there's a breathalyser in here, somewhere,"

"My oldest brother is an absolute bore and works in safety analysing or something like that." He explains, when she blinks and shakes her head in confusion,

"He got one for all the siblings, including our ten-year-old brother, fun fact, you eat enough wine gummies and you can blow a positive."

Caroline snickered and headed into the bathroom, looking for the dress she'd left balled up in the corner.

She really didn't want to put it back on but she doubted Klaus had a change of clothes for her.

He finds his keys and tosses them in his hand in triumph before shouting that there's a spare towel in the bathroom closet.

The towel in question is soft cream, full body and fluffy and Caroline wonders if Klaus has really good taste or his ex-girlfriend had gone shopping with him?

She probably shouldn't ask.

But there aren't any girly things in the shower, just an expensive shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, though she does note an exfoliating stone with lingering flecks of paint.

She feels clean when she steps out of the shower but when she slips on her wedding dress, she feels dirty again.

It was literal symbol of her ruined hopes and dreams.

God, she so did not want to go to her mom's house still wearing her wedding dress.

How sad would that be?

And the mere thought of having to face her mom, her family, her friends, Tyler…

She takes a deep breath and forces herself to smile.

Because the alternative would be to cry.

When she pads back into the kitchen and helps herself to another cup of coffee, she sees Klaus standing by the open door,

"Uh, Caroline?" he calls, "I think this is for you?"

With a frown, Caroline joins him at the door and sees a carry-on suitcase sitting in the hallway.

A familiar pink suitcase that she'd had for five years.

How the hell?

She looks up and down the hallway but there's nobody there and nobody knew where she was.

So how?

She picks it up and carries it inside, seeing a corner of something slipped into a side pouch, she pulls on it and a napkin comes out.

She turns it over and sees writing in blood-red lipstick,

 _'Good on you, he's hot! xx K'_

Katherine.

"One of my best friends," she explains to Klaus, "She…uh…she's well…intense."

Klaus hasn't seen the napkin but he's still looking confused,

"How'd she get into the building without the code?" he asks and Caroline can only shrug,

"You don't ask questions when it comes to Katherine," she says, zipping open the suitcase,

"The answers are terrifying."

She and Tyler had planned a honeymoon in St Tropez and her carry-on suitcase hadn't contained much more than her toiletries, a bikini and some lingerie for their wedding night. Katherine had left the toiletries, the lingerie but had thrown in a few of her outfits and a pair of boots.

Also, six condoms and a travel pack of lube.

Because of course Katherine's solution to a broken heart would be an instant rebound with the first hot guy she came across.

Her cell-phone is under the condoms and turned off and Caroline ducks back into the bathroom, changes, puts on her make-up and does her hair, wanting to delay the inevitable before she turns on her phone.

She places it on the bench as it powers up and she and Klaus watch as it vibrates the full length of the wood, message after missed call driving it off the edge, into the air and into her hand.

"Wow." she stares at the screen, floundering as she tries to figure where to begin.

She totally did not want to deal with this right now.

Klaus checks the clock on the wall and winces, "I have to be at lunch in an hour."

Caroline blushes as she remembers that she was eating into his free time, "Right, I should…"

"No, no," he waves his hand, "Trust me, I don't want to deal with the outside world any more than you do. I'll be facing my brother for the first time since I tried to break his nose and god only knows how my other siblings are going to act."

There's colour in his cheeks and he looks absolutely miserable at the thought, Caroline wants to hug him or say something to make him feel better when the idea comes to her,

"Do you think they'll mind if I go with you?" she asks, "A tragic runaway bride at the table means nobody is going to focus on their brother."

He perks up but with a little furrow in his brow, "You sure, sweetheart?"

She tries to fight the smile on her face at the hope in his eyes, "It's the least I can do, if your parents don't mind?"

He shakes his head, "Just my mom, and she'll be fine."

She beams, "Then, let's go."

* * *

Elijah pulled his car into the gravel circular driveway outside the family home, leaning back in the driver's seat and closing his eyes.

This was going to be somewhat awkward.

Something hits the bonnet of his Porsche with a bang and his eyes shoot open, looking for the source of the noise when he sees a familiar face in the window.

"Hiya!"

Shuddering, Elijah pushed open the door, catching his younger brother in the stomach,

"Good morning Kol," he says curtly, "You seem to have a little something on your chin," he gestures to the imaginary mark, "A little coal perhaps?"

Kol's hand had been halfway to his face before he snorts, "Nice try, I'll have you know I haven't done anything illicit in three whole days!"

"Oh, I'll alert the papers," Elijah remarks drily, "Does narcotics anonymous hand out coins for that incredible benchmark?"

Kol clapped him on the shoulder as they reached the front door, "Poke fun if it helps you feel better, how is my older brother Nik, by the way?"

Elijah spins around quickly, using a move he'd learnt in Muay Thai to jab Kol in the throat, causing him to stagger backwards, choking and spluttering.

 _"Boys!"_

He winces as Esther's voice cuts down the hallway, "You are grown men," she lectures, as she sweeps across the polished wooden floors, "Brothers do not fight!"

Physical fighting was the primary means of communication between the Mikaelson brothers but Elijah's not about to disabuse her of any illusion she had about her son's levels of maturity.

She clicks her tongue as she takes Kol by the shoulders, examining his neck as she glares at Elijah,

"Wash up and set the table," she orders, "And leave room for Freya's flowers."

Properly chastened and momentarily distracted, Elijah cuts through the industrial kitchen to the large dining room with the table that had been made especially to Esther's requirements.

It was a sixteen seater which, when she wasn't hosting friends, had the benefit of giving the children spaces between each other.

Finn had once calculated how much bickering was avoided with these extra places between the siblings and gave a figure around twenty percent.

His explanations behind the number had been lost in the subsequent arguing.

Elijah runs his finger along the polished table, seeing the seating order in his mind, Esther at the head of the table and each of them placed either side based in descending order of age.

Mikael had sat at the other end of the table but had not once been missed.

He moves to the chiffonier and bends down, opening the doors to see the Venetian lace tablecloths, shaking them out, he drapes them over the wood, shifting them so they are dead centre before returning for the Wedgewood china and silverware.

His mother had different settings depending on the season and he knows to use the cornucopia settings as he sets the plates and carries the vegetable dish and soup tureen to the kitchen where he saw the large pot simmering on the stove.

The kitchen is filled with the aroma of butter, mushrooms, garlic and herbs and he leans against the pantry door, enjoying the scent and momentary peace.

The sliding door to the backyard opens and Sage steps inside, giving him a calm smile that immediately has him eyeing her suspiciously.

The last time Sage hadn't been frazzled when surrounded by his family had been the first time she'd been exposed to them.

Unfortunately for her, prolonged exposure hadn't built up any immunity. He'd offered her a script for Valium but she'd turned him down.

"Hello," he murmurs as she heads to the pot, lifting it up and checking it before taking it off the stove, "How are you?"

Sage gives him a sardonic glance, "Sober, Doctor Paranoid, how are you?"

He runs his tongue along his teeth, "Are you making lunch?"

"Esther and I made it together," she informs him, "She kept taking photos to upload to Facebook so she could brag to all her friends about her chef-in-law."

He smirks and opens the fridge, perusing the contents and seeing the wine bottles,

"Well, at least she's got one of us to bring her pride and joy." He remarks, wondering why none of his brothers had thought to bring beer.

Sage sighs, "Could you please head out the front?" she requests as she opens the oven,

"If you are going to confront Nik, I'd rather it not be near the food."

"I'm not going to confront my brother," he argues, "I'm planning on apologizing."

"Just do it outside!" she orders, grabbing a wooden spoon and poking him with it until he's back in the hallway.

Kol, seeing an opportunity, had headed into the living room to recover and was playing video games with Henrik, who barely looked up when Elijah said hi.

He walks outside, edges into the front garden, along Esther's beloved vervein patch before quickly doubling back.

If Niklaus does end up throwing a punch or two, mother would be ropable if he landed on her plants.

He hears his brother's car pulling into the drive but keeps his back to him and his hands in his pockets, courage fleeing his body in direct proportion to his climbing heart rate.

He expects the sound of the car door shutting to be followed by the sounds of gravel flying as his brother hurtled towards him for a full-body tackle.

Instead, cheerful laughter cuts across the tense silence.

"This house is beautiful," a woman comments, "And huge."

"There's seven of us though," Nik points out, "Plus our mother."

Elijah forces himself to turn around and sees a beautiful young woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and a wide, friendly smile on her face. She waves to him and turns to his brother, clearly expecting an introduction.

Niklaus takes a breath and leads her over, "Caroline, this is…my brother Elijah," he announces in a tight voice, "Elijah, this is Caroline- a friend of mine."

Elijah notes the full pronunciation of his name and the accompanying dashing of his hopes.

He couldn't remember the last time his siblings hadn't abbreviated his name to ''Lijah'

Caroline holds out her hand and shakes his enthusiastically, "Nice to meet you."

She's bubbling over with happiness and he can't help but smile, "Lovely to meet you as well."

Niklaus isn't meeting his eyes and Elijah figures the day is going to be a wash for fixing his relationship with his brother when Sage appears in the doorway,

"Caroline!" she waves, "Hi, how are you? Come inside, let me get you a drink!"

"Oh." Caroline looks to his brother, who gives her a gentle nod and she follows Sage inside, the two of them chatting away.

Elijah watches her leave with interest, trying to figure out who she is to his brother exactly.

If he's moved on from Jules, then perhaps he has a shot of forgiveness.

"She seems nice," he blurts quickly to try and break the tension, "Did you meet her in London?"

Niklaus has the slightest frown on his face and Elijah deliberately relaxes his body so that if he is punched, he won't injure himself on the way down.

"Yesterday," he finally answers, "She was in a bit of a situation and I helped her out,"

"She's a friend," he adds, a bit savagely as Elijah opens his mouth to reply, "She's with someone and I respect that."

'Unlike you.' Is the unspoken implication and he flinches, his mind whirling desperately as he tries to figure out how to heal the rift between them.

"What can I say?" he asks with a hint of desperation, "What I did was horrendous and unforgivable, but if you could find it within yourself to grant me forgiveness…"

"Are you still with her?" Niklaus demands, "Jules?"

Elijah shook his head quickly, "No, I broke things off the moment I realized I was risking my relationship with you."

"Good," his brother nods, a cruel smile on his face, "Because yesterday, Caroline walked in on her blowing her fiancé Tyler, which led to her and I meeting."

He had clearly been hoping that remark would hurt Elijah, but he finds the news interesting for another reason, "Is her last name Forbes?"

Niklaus is clearly surprised, "How'd you know that?"

Elijah smirks with humour, "I met her fiancé in the ER, after her bridesmaid was finished with him."

"Huh," he smiles, "Small world."

"Boys!" Esther calls from within the house, "Come inside, lunch is almost ready."

It sounds like their mother is in the dining room, but Elijah wouldn't have put it past her to have somehow eavesdropped on their conversation and anticipated the perfect moment to interrupt.

He holds his arm out, letting Niklaus go first and follows a step behind, stopping only to check that Kol and Henrik have left the video game and headed through to the dining room where everyone was crowding around the table.

And where Caroline Forbes was the centre of attention.

"Oh, you poor thing," Esther clucked as she sat her down in the seat beside Niklaus,

"You must be starving!"

She paused in the act of stroking her hair, "You don't have any allergies, do you?"

Caroline gave a winning smile as she shook her head, "Oh no, I eat everything and this all looks delicious!"

"Sage helped me cook," Esther boasts with clear pride,

"She's so talented, unfortunately, none of my children are interested in cooking."

Niklaus smirks, sitting down beside Caroline, "Sage did try to teach us once."

A strangled noise erupts from Sage's throat and she freezes, standing rigid as Kol laughs and Finn picks up her hand, easing a glass of wine into it, "There, there dear."

He turns to his brothers with a glare, "We promised we would never speak of that, remember?"

Caroline looks down at the large mug on her plate, "This smells amazing, is it mushroom soup?"

"Mushroom cappuccino," Sage manages after a healthy gulp of white wine, "With truffle aroma."

"There'll be three courses," Esther assures her, before calling up the stairs for Rebekah,

"I'll be surprised if Niklaus fed you anything but coffee."

Niklaus rolled his eyes as Rebekah thumped down the stairs and swung into the dining room,

"Sorry, I was online," she sees Caroline, "Who are you?"

"Caroline," she introduces, "Your brother rescued me yesterday."

" _Rescued?_ " Rebekah asks, plopping down in her seat and reaching for the herb bread, "How?"

Caroline glanced down with a blush and took a breath,

"I'm a runaway bride," she begins, "I caught my fiancé cheating on me just before we were due to walk down the aisle and your brother found me after the taxi he was in nearly ran me over."

Rebekah's eyes gleam at the juicy piece of gossip and she clearly wants to ask more questions but Esther gives her a warning look,

"Well, better you found out now than afterwards." she sums up.

"If it makes you feel any better," Elijah interjects, catching Caroline's attention,

"I believe your fiancé came into the hospital yesterday, Tyler, is it?"

Her eyebrows shoot up, "The hospital? Is he okay?"

He runs his tongue along his teeth, "I can't get into the details but his injuries were caused by one Katherine Pierce."

"Oh," Caroline giggles as she picks up the mug, her eyes lighting up as she sips at the froth,

"Broken pelvis?"

She turns back to Niklaus, "Katherine's go-to method for dealing with asshole men is to fracture their pelvises. Do you know if she's in trouble?"

Elijah shook his head, "I don't think so, his two best men claimed not to have seen anything and your mother is a policewoman who seems rather sympathetic to her. Katherine had a minor head injury but they discharged her this morning."

Caroline beamed, "Small world, huh?"

She then looked across the table to where Kol was helping himself to another serving,

"So, I heard you went on a date with an orangutan once?"

* * *

After lunch, Esther chased Caroline and Sage from the kitchen, insisting on making the boys clean up and sent them to the living room with Rebekah to have coffee and Klaus could hear his little sister asking Caroline about what had happened at the wedding.

He's about to run interference when Esther draws him back into the kitchen,

"She'll be fine," she assures him, "Something tells me that girl can take care of herself."

"Besides," she adds, "That's why you brought her here today, isn't it, to divert attention?"

He scowls, unhappy at being caught out, "She volunteered, to pay me back for rescuing her yesterday and giving her a place to sleep."

Esther hands him the plates to scrape into the bin, "I hope you took the couch, Niklaus?"

"Of course,." he lied smoothly and she either fell for it for the first time ever or let it slide,

"Such a lovely girl," she continues, "An absolute darling."

Her compliment is so pointed that he rolls his eyes as Finn looks up from the sink,

"One who had her heart broken only twenty-four hours ago, mother," he points out, "She's still wearing her ring!"

Esther shrugged, "I'm not saying anything."

"Yes, you are," Elijah pointed out, finishing the last of the red wine, "When she complimented the china you all but invited her to join the family."

Esther scoffed and whacked him with the tea towel, "Considering the sons I have, is it so wrong of me to want decent in-laws?"

"She's my friend, mother." Klaus stated firmly, "Nothing more."

 _Yet_.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N- Thanks for the support!

* * *

Caroline had made it through a Mikaelson family lunch.

Now all that remained was to see if she developed PTSD.

Klaus' head was starting to throb with his afternoon hangover and he dropped down beside her on the couch, sighing with relief as the tension left his body.

Caroline throws him a smile and draws out her phone, tapping on the screen,

"I should head home." she murmurs, her tone reluctant but without the grief that had been present earlier.

"You're welcome to stay with me as long as you need," Klaus offers, caught between his own reluctance of heading back to his apartment and having to fill up the fridge and do laundry or being able to relax with nobody around to look after. "I really don't mind."

She sighs, "Thanks but…I have to start figuring out what I'm going to do next…I was meant to be heading to Hawaii for my honeymoon today but…" she chews her lip, "Well, at least I got miles for the plane tickets."

"You should still go," Klaus suggests, "Perhaps it'd be good for you?"

She smirks, "Your mom said the same thing but…I think I'd just spend the fortnight thinking about how I was meant to be there with Tyler, besides, I can go back to work and build up my vacation time."

She inhales, holds her breath and exhales before tapping the screen again and Klaus can hear the call connecting.

" _Hey Hot Stuff,_ " a sultry voice filters through the speaker, " _Ready to be picked up?_ "

Caroline rolls her eyes, "Hey Katherine, listen, I'm in Richmond but I'm in the suburbs…"

" _I know,_ " Katherine interrupted, " _I've taken Matt and his car, we're at Esther's favorite café only about fifteen minutes away._ "

Klaus frowns in concern, "How does she know where you are?" he asks and she shakes her head,

"It's better not to ask…" she whispers, "Okay, see you soon."

Esther sweeps through the hallway, "Caroline, darling, can I make you up a plate at least?"

"You want to take some food home?" Klaus translates when he sees the British slang lost on her,

"I'm going to make you up a plate," Esther announces before Caroline can even answer,

"One less thing to worry about."

"Smile and accept your fate," he tells her as she stares after his mother open-mouthed.

"You're lucky she hasn't half-drowned you in tea, yet."

She giggles and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "She's really nice."

He grins and resists the urge to reach over and squeeze her hand.

She _was_ beautiful, even when her eyes were drowning in sadness and he wanted to make her happy again.

He envies Kol for a moment, his little brother couldn't go a full minute without reducing everyone around him to fits of laughter.

Maybe Rebekah could come in and distract her with her rants about fashion?

He's about to tell a joke- which is like watching a car crash in action, because he's witty but not a joker- when he hears a screech of tires and the roar of an engine.

Both sounds somewhat out of place in the quiet leafy suburb, and Caroline sighs,

"Matt is such an idiot," she mutters, pushing herself up and heading to the front door, he follows in her footsteps and they reach the driveway just in time to see the car come to a screeching halt right in front of their nature strip.

A blonde guy falls out of the passenger seat and tumbles to the grass, burying his fingers into the soil and Klaus wonders whether he should shout for Elijah.

"Seriously?!" Caroline demands of the guy, sounding utterly unsympathetic,

" _Why_ did you let Katherine drive?"

"Not my fault," he gasps, "She's on her eighth espresso since five am."

"Hi!"

A brunette model slipped from the car, perching on eight inch heels and whipping her hair over her shoulder, "Ready to go?"

Caroline raised an eyebrow, "I want to wait five minutes and see if I hear any police sirens."

Katherine rolled her eyes, "Please, as if I'd ever let them catch me."

She strides forward and throws her arms around Caroline, pulling her in for a hug,

"I'm sorry about Tyler turning out to be a massive dick, instead of _having_ a massive dick."

Caroline looks over her friend's shoulder to make a face at Klaus and he raised his eyebrows in answer.

"Oh," Katherine releases her and smirks, "Hey, man-whore."

Klaus has a moment of confusion before he turns and sees Elijah standing behind him, obviously thrown for a loop but he recovers quickly,

"Hello, Ms. Pierce," he manages, "Forgive me, but if I recall, your chart said you weren't due to be discharged until this evening?"

Katherine shrugged, "I had stuff to do."

Caroline rolled her eyes again, " _Seriously?!_ " she says and Klaus realizes that word is her fallback, "Bonnie could have picked me up."

"Nope," Katherine smirked, "Because she picked up the caterer instead."

"Marcel?" Caroline shrieked, "The hot guy?"

Katherine nodded, "Turns out, it wasn't this skank you had to worry about."

Caroline laughs and buries her face in her hands, "Well, who would have guessed Carol's demand to have him as caterer would have turned out okay?"

She sighs and rubs her temples and Klaus strides to his car, grabbing her duffel bag out of the back seat and handing it to her, "Call me if you need anything." He offers and then darts pass her to snatch the car keys from Katherine's fingers, earning a yelp of outrage as he tosses them over her head to Caroline.

"Thanks!" she says, climbing up to the driver's side of the truck, "See you later."

Klaus is grinning like an idiot as the three of them drive away and Elijah claps his hand on his shoulder, "At the risk of sounding like a 'nice guy'," he intones,

"I think you might just have a shot."

* * *

Caroline's good mood lasted a lot longer than she would have thought it would. She spent the ride being distracted by Katherine's innuendo about Klaus and Matt's over-exaggerated horror that Katherine knew half of the sexual acts that she was suggesting had taken place last night.

Her humor fades away as she reaches her townhouse and she lingers over parking the truck in her driveway, focusing on her breathing.

She had been so excited when Tyler had moved out of the Lockwood mansion in Mystic Falls and moved in with her.

Now, her heart was breaking at the memories of the times they'd shared there.

At least he was still at the hospital.

With a sigh, she clambers out of the truck and leads her friends up to the front door, reaching into her duffel bag and fumbling around for her house keys, they're a familiar, comforting weight in her hand and she slides the key into the lock as she had done a million times before.

But this time, the key doesn't turn.

Frowning, Caroline puts a bit of weight behind the push but nothing moves and she takes the key out, studying it to make sure she has the right one.

She does and tries again, huffing with frustration when nothing happens.

She must have a bigger hangover than she realized.

"Kat," she groans, "Can you open the door for me?"

Katherine saunters forward and takes the keys out of her hand, even though Caroline's pretty sure she has her own copy. She tries to open the door and bends down to examine the lock before staring at the key, "There's two different trademarks," she announces, straightening up,

"Didn't Damon install the locks for you?"

"Yeah," Caroline nods, looking at the lock and seeing the Salvatore brand is no longer there.

Instead it was a brand name she's never seen before.

For a crazy moment, she thinks she's at the wrong house, except the letter box at the front is the one she chose and the garden is neat but slightly overgrown because Tyler never mowed the lawn.

Which means…

"Someone's changed the locks," she whispered, panicking at the thought of not being able to get into her own house. All her papers, lease and everything were inside, along with her family heirlooms, all her possessions.

"What do I do?" she asks her friends who look as bewildered as she does.

"Call the cops?" Matt suggests, sticking his hands in his pockets, "Ask them what to do so you're covered?"

"I can break in?" Katherine volunteered, "Provided you don't mind a slightly damaged window."

Caroline holds her back when she starts moving to the side of the house, "No, call Damon and tell him it's an emergency."

Katherine's mouth twists but she gets out her phone as Caroline looks at her screen, realizes the battery is almost flat and grabs Matt's phone.

It's not a 9-1-1 call but she finds the number for the local police station and after three rings, it's picked up by a bored deputy who rattles off the information,

"Uh…hi," she clears her throat, "Um…I've had the locks changed on my house and need…"

"Do you rent or own the house?" the deputy interrupted,

"Rent but it wasn't my landlord," she answers, knowing the landlord was lazy and preferred for her to take care of any repairs necessary.

"It was my…" she swallows, "Ex-boyfriend…"

"Did your partner give you a reasonable period of notice to clear out your belongings?" he interrupted again and her stomach turns at the sound of him chewing gum.

"His name isn't on the lease," she tells him, "It's my house, he doesn't have any legal right to have changed the locks."

She assumes he doesn't have any legal right, honestly, it had never come up but Carol had insisted that Tyler not put his name on the lease because then he'd have obligations to both the house and Caroline.

At this information, the deputy stops sighing and asks for her details, tapping loudly on the other end of the phone and promising that a dispatch was on the way.

She hangs up and Katherine promises her that Damon is also on his way, though he'd be about two hours. In the meantime, Caroline walked back to the truck, sat in the bed and tried not to burst into tears.

Not even a full twenty-four hours after they were supposed to be married and Tyler had cheated on her and tried to kick her out of her own home?

What if he'd been successful? Did he really want her homeless?

Okay, she could have gone back to her mom's house in Mystic Falls but her work was here and that would have meant a four-hour daily commute.

He was such an _asshole_!

The police officer is a regular, slightly overweight man who seems sympathetic when they explain the situation,

"Okay," he pats her shoulder, "I can get an emergency locksmith but it will cost you a little bit, honey, are you sure you can't call your boyfriend for the keys? Maybe apologize for the fight?"

Caroline distinctly hears Katherine's seething behind her, "He cheated on me yesterday, getting a blowjob from some random girl twenty minutes before the wedding and changed the locks on the house that I signed the lease for," she recaps for him, "Katherine," she shouts over her shoulder,

"Break in for me."

Katherine disappears around the side of the house, they hear the scrape of a window and then a thump followed by rapid footsteps that pause for a moment before resuming. Caroline sees Katherine's dark hair through the opaque door window and she fumbles with the locks before opening the door.

But she doesn't have the triumphant look on her face that she usually does after committing petty crime, instead, she looks pissed,

"Care…" she chews her lip, "You might need to file a police report."

Caroline's eyes widen and she pushes past her friend, into her home, past the open plan living room before stopping and turning back.

Her flat screen TV was gone.

Like literally _gone_.

She made her way around the couch and saw that Tyler's X-Box was gone as well and she had left her laptop on the coffee table but it wasn't there.

She was beginning to shake as she made her way first to the kitchen and saw cupboard doors hanging open.

Her multicooker, juicer, and the coffee maker her dad had bought her had been taken.

In the bathroom, her perfume and some of her every day make-up was missing.

She can somewhat hear the policeman being led through the house by Matt and Katherine, who were giving as best as they could, a list of the things they knew had been taken.

But the noise was almost drowned out by the ringing in her ears as she reached her bedroom.

Which had been ransacked.

Her clothes had been torn out of the wardrobe dropped on the floor, her shoes scattered everywhere and her lingerie was all over her bed.

Horror courses through her before her mind alights on the reason why and there are tears in her eyes before she even finds her jewelry box, lying upside down and broken in the corner.

Over the course of their relationship, Tyler had given her four pieces of jewelry.

One Tiffany necklace.

One gold bracelet.

And of course, her engagement and wedding rings.

Everything else in the box had belonged to her or her family.

And it had all been _taken_.

A gentle hand lands on her shoulder and she looks up to see Matt standing there awkwardly,

"Do you want me to go talk to him?" he offers, "Um…maybe get your stuff back?"

She sniffs and wipes at her eyes, "Tell him I don't care about the TV or the kitchen stuff, but I want my family heirlooms back,"

She holds up the box to his disbelieving gaze, "Tell him, I'll even trade him my engagement ring for them."

Matt clenches his fists but nods and turns on his heel, making it down the hallway before cursing under his breath and Caroline manages the tiniest smile as she talks to the police officer, 'accidentally' name-dropping her mom so he knows that she's a cop's daughter and will put in a little more effort for her.

When he's gone, along with a list of stolen goods that Caroline had separated into three categories 'Hers', 'Shared' and 'Tyler's'- and no prize for guessing which was the shortest- she was left wandering around her house, her arms wrapped around herself as her hangover throbbed at the edge of her mind and she fought her restlessness.

She was supposed to be sitting on a beach in Hawaii right now, she was supposed to be married and happy and definitely not pacing the ruins of her love life.

At least she wasn't alone.

Katherine was currently rummaging through her cupboards for something to eat and Caroline had cleaned out her fridge and done a deep clean of her house before she and Tyler had gone to the hotel but she has enough lying around to make Katherine some tea and vegetable soup.

Esther had given her three Tupperware boxes filled with leftovers but Caroline was going to save those for her dinner tonight.

Strangely enough, though she has Katherine sitting at the kitchen island, clearly ready to launch into a rant about how Tyler was the biggest dick in the world and that she could do so much better, Caroline finds herself feeling a little alone.

Because Katherine was a heartbreaker, she'd never loved a guy enough to have her heart broken over him and right now, she wanted someone who knew the feeling of having the rug ripped out from under you and finding yourself only able to stare blankly at the ruined pieces of your life.

She wanted to speak to Klaus.

* * *

She has her phone out and is about to text him when there's a knock on her open door.

"We're here blondie," an arrogant voice calls and Caroline rolls her eyes,

"Who's we?" she shouts back, "Don't tell me you finally found someone willing to put up with…hey, Enzo."

Damon is already looking at the lock on her front door but Enzo makes his way in,

"Hello, gorgeous," he kisses her cheek, "Sorry to hear about yesterday."

She smiles and bumps him with her shoulder, "Sorry you weren't invited, but Stefan was best man which means I had to invite… _that_."

She points at Damon who rolls his eyes, "Do I look like a teen girl?" he demands,

"I wasn't going to throw a hissy fit if you'd invited my ex."

"No," Enzo answers for her, "You were just going to drunk dial me, apologize for being you and aske me to give you another shot."

Caroline giggled, "He drunk dialed you?"

"Yes," Enzo answered, "At one in the afternoon."

Caroline covers her mouth with her hand and turns away to hide her laughter as Damon bitches them out under his breath,

"Okay, whoever changed these locks is a freaking amateur," he announces, "Because they damaged the hell out of the wood."

She comes back with a wince, "Is it going to be expensive to fix?" she asks and he shakes his head,

"Not for you," he looks up with a smirk, "I'm sending the bill to Lockwood."

Damon isn't usually that nice- though he was usually on his best behavior when he and Enzo were dating- but he'd always had an antagonistic relationship with Tyler, especially when he'd first come out of the closet at nineteen and Tyler had still been a bit too much of a jock to be accepting of gay guys- especially because his dad had always been an asshole about that.

Fortunately, Giuseppe had died- probably of shock- and the Salvatore building and logging company had been left to Stefan who'd promptly signed it over to Damon so he could go to medical school instead. And the Lockwood's couldn't afford to piss off the oldest and richest family in town.

Caroline feels a lump in her throat and swallows carefully, "Thanks."

He shrugs, "I don't particularly care for you, Barbie, but you've always been there for Stefan and that means something."

She nods and leads Enzo to the kitchen to make instant coffee for everyone while Damon makes a detailed inspection of the damage.

It's nice having people who care around to look after her, but still, after an hour or so, she escapes to the bathroom to text Klaus, catching him up on what had happened and waiting for his response.

She knew that he wouldn't be able to offer any help or advice that her other friends hadn't already given, but she still felt good telling him and having him be angry for her.


	5. Chapter 5 8th May

A/N- To all those following this story, I am sorry for the confusion over the weekend, this site decided to royally cock up.

* * *

Elijah could practically hear the rumour mill going full bore as he slid on his coat and walked out of the change room.

The nurses desk was overcrowded as people gathered around and he can barely get through to grab his files for the day, luckily Jackson hands them to him.

"Congrats," he announces, "You've got Terrible Choices Lockwood."

Elijah takes the file with a bemused grin, "Who gifted him the nickname?"

"Nurses." Maggie answers, coming up on his left, "His mom brought him back in twenty minutes ago because he's in too much pain, she's screaming that Charlie screwed up his treatment and endangered his life."

Elijah frowns and goes over his chart, "That's exceptionally unlikely, but I'll take a look."

He's not in the ER and Zach, in a curt, pissed off voice, tells him that he was moved to a private room because Carol's shrieking was scaring the autistic kid brought in with the broken arm six beds over.

When he steps into the room, he can almost feel the righteous fury pouring from Mrs Lockwood in waves. "Well, it's about time!" she snaps before he can introduce himself, "We've been waiting for hours!"

According to the chart, he was readmitted sixty minutes ago.

For a non-emergency.

"My apologies," he lies smoothly, "I'm Dr Mikaelson, I'll be looking after your son, today. Tyler, I believe you're in pain?"

"Obviously!" Mrs Lockwood answers, "Why else would we be back in this low-standard hellhole?"

Elijah bites his tongue so he doesn't point out that he's only one of the world-renowned doctors in this top-tier hospital and turns pointedly to the patient,

"Where's the pain?" he asks and Tyler shifts on the bed, locating it with his hand, "Here and it really hurts."

"On a scale of one to ten?"

"Eleven."

Okay.

That was not good.

Charlie had dealt with the fracture and Elijah checks the x-rays again to make sure there's nothing that was missed.

"Did you take the pain meds?" he asks and Tyler nods, "Okay…and what activities did you do this morning?"

"Well, I showered and then packed some suitcases in the car."

Elijah glances up from the x-ray, "Heavy suitcases?"

Tyler nods, "Yeah, we're going to Hawaii for a fortnight."

We?

Last Elijah had seen of Caroline, just a few hours ago, she hadn't mentioned any reconciliation.

"We need this holiday," Mrs Lockwood announced, "After all the stress we've been through."

Ah.

Elijah considers his words carefully before speaking, "Tyler, you shouldn't be exerting yourself or lifting anything too heavy until your body has healed, now, I can do another x-ray to doublecheck that we haven't missed anything but so far, this does look to be regular pain to be expected from this type of injury."

"Well then, obviously, you need to give him stronger pain medication," Mrs Lockwood snaps,

"He shouldn't be feeling any pain at all."

Considering that Elijah couldn't see a single visible sign or symptom of pain in Tyler's eyes, facial expression and the fact that his body wasn't tensed in any area, he rather suspected that Tyler either wasn't feeling pain or wasn't feeling it enough to have warranted another trip to the ER.

Before he can point this out, however, there's a sharp knock on the door and a blonde man pushes his way into the room, his fists clench and Elijah takes a step closer to the bed, not really wanting to intervene, but if this man was here to injure Tyler further, that would mean a prolonged stay for the Lockwood's at the hospital.

And Elijah really didn't want that.

"Matt?" Tyler says, clearly surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"Your mom posted on Facebook that you were back here," Matt answers indirectly, "I came to get Caroline's stuff back."

Elijah clears his throat to point out that a hospital was hardly the place to do the property transfer but Tyler frowns, "What are you talking about?"

"Seriously?!" Matt snaps, clenching his fists further and Elijah puts the chart on the bedtable with an internal sigh, "Ty, that house is in Caroline's name and not only did you change the freaking locks on her but you took the tv and half her kitchen stuff?! What the hell is wrong with you?! And all her jewellery as well? You know, she reported you to the police, right? They're probably going to press charges."

Elijah is taking a half-step to the left so that Matt will have a clear path in case of attack and has to actually remind himself that he cannot let that happen. So, while taking mental notes for the hospital rumour mill, he looks back to Tyler who's looking visibly confused.

"What are you talking about?" he demands, "I sent mom over there to pick up some of my clothes and that's all she took, right mom?"

In unison, the three of them look to Mrs Lockwood, who pulls on the hem of her suit jacket self-consciously, "Well…I might have picked up some of your things while I was there…"

Huh.

Matt is looking quite incredulous, "Some of his things? The tv was Caroline's, and her laptop and Tyler doesn't wear her perfume, make-up and why would you take her family jewellery?"

Mrs Lockwood cleared her throat, "I may have taken some of the things by accident…"

"And her panties?" Matt demanded, sarcastically, "Was that an accident too?"

Damn.

No-one was going to believe his version of events when he retold this later.

"And what about changing the locks?" he continued, clearly on a roll, and Mrs Lockwood gave an almost guilty shrug, before straightening up and putting a hand on her chest,

"Matthew Donovan, how dare you speak to me this way. I am merely doing my best to look after my baby boy after Caroline humiliated him on his wedding day and allowed him to be attacked by that white-trash friend of hers. She could have ruined his reputation and you're here making all these accusations about things that might not have even happened."

Elijah has his expression schooled into a mask of detached professionalism but Matt is wearing enough disgust on his face for the both of them, "I'm leaving now," he announces, "You're going to text me the location where you put all of Caroline's stolen things so I can tell the police so they don't have to take you in for questioning."

He turns to leave on his high horse and the last word but Mrs Lockwood takes one last parting shot,

"Well, they can't question us today because we're flying to Hawaii for Tyler's honeymoon tonight."

She leans over the bed, kisses Tyler on the head and Elijah mentally cancels every one-on-one plan he'd made with his mother for the next three months.

Five minutes later, when he's physically texting her to explain the situation she responds almost immediately,

From: Esther- 'My dear son, if I ever act half that mad, please be so kind as to drive me out to the country and leave me there *Shudder* my skin is crawling.

He grins and heads to the nurses' station to start spreading the gossip before the revulsion makes him throw up his breakfast.

* * *

Caroline loved her job.

She loved organizing events, to throw herself into every task that landed on her desk and to create something beautiful that her clients would always remember.

That being said, she had been looking forward to going on her honeymoon.

To Hawaii, lying on the beach, drinking cocktails and just relaxing for two weeks.

She had been mentally preparing for all the mental and emotional rejuvenation she was going to have after the stress of the wedding and now…

Now, she was wandering around her house, contemplating whether or not to go back to work early.

It wasn't like there was much else for her to do. Tyler's stuff was all gone, along with a lot of her stuff, but Matt should hopefully be getting that back today.

Katherine had offered to stay and provide moral support, or rummage around in her kitchen until Caroline got the hint and made her food but eventually she ordered her friend to go home to do whatever it was Katherine did whenever they weren't around.

Probably plan world domination.

Caroline definitely needs her laptop if she was going to go back to work tomorrow- or, Tuesday- but for now, she sets herself the task of sitting on the couch and trying to figure out what to email to her boss.

Obviously, she couldn't use the same line she'd been giving everyone else because she's a professional and therefore, isn't going to start her email with,

'Hi Genevieve, I caught Tyler cheating on me with some stranger twenty minutes before the wedding, so I'm coming back to work early, xoxo Caroline'

Plus, it's kind of humiliating. She's sure that word has probably started to get out by now that the wedding didn't happen, but still, admitting it kind of hurts.

She had invested so much into her and Tyler's future together, she had walked through the engagement with that full confidence and slight smug attitude that came with knowing her dating days was over, that she would have someone to spend the rest of her life with.

How many of the single girls at work were probably laughing at her right now?

Oh God.

She was single again.

Right now, the thought of having to defend her single status to partnered up friends, having to repeat constantly that 'she just wasn't looking for anyone right now' or 'she was focusing on herself or her work at the moment', or the idea of having to swipe through tinder, to try and wade through the dick picks and proposers of three-ways to find that one decent guy, exhausted her.

She had thought she was done.

And now, here she was, sitting on a couch in a house that had been emptied of a lot of her stuff and what good memories remained had been tainted by betrayal.

Maybe she should move?

But that was a thought for another day.

For now, she typed out a quick email and checked the wording three times before pressing send.

'Dear Genevieve,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be going on my honeymoon and was hoping I could return to work Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning,

Regards,

Caroline Forbes'

There.

Done.

Her phone buzzes and she checks the emails in her inbox.

One standard email from the hotel, noting that despite failure to show up to the reception, same-day cancellation was not possible, therefore, there would be no refund.

Another personalized email from the hotel, apologizing for the inconvenience and letting her know that all items left in her hotel room had been collected by a Miss Bennett, whose drivers licence had been photocopied at the reception desk just in case she was not known to Miss Forbes and that the wedding presents that had been left by the guests had been picked up by a Mrs Lockwood.

One email came from Marcel Gerard and she opened it to find that he offered his condolences and told her that he couldn't give her a refund because the meals had already been cooked when Bonnie had alerted him to the situation, but because he and she had boxed them up and taken them to a local soup kitchen to be distributed, she should be able to claim the full amount on her taxes as a charitable donation. He'd attached a receipt from the soup kitchen and Caroline sends a silent prayer of thanks and an actual thank-you to Bonnie.

Bonnie responds quickly, calling and offering to bring over some food and chat, but after the day she's had, not only is she still a little hungover, but she's emotionally exhausted and just can't handle the thought of talking to anyone and honestly, it's barely five pm but she just wants to crawl into her bed and sleep.

Except that she has to change the sheets and clean up her bedroom.

With a loud groan, she pulls herself up and trudges to her linen closet, opening the door to find herself staring at the bedsheets she'd bought one night when she'd been tipsy and horny. Black silk sheets with a duvet and pillow cover in a pattern that was called Geisha Moon Tattoo. It was from a site that sold erotic bed covers and weirdly enough- bathroom and kitchen décor, but she figures half the appeal was the knowledge that the customer was buying the products for erotic purposes.

Still, even if the bedding wasn't any more or less inappropriate than the purple and white striped sheets she'd had on the bed that morning, she still blushed as she tucked in the corners and smoothed the sheet over the mattress.

And for a moment, she wonders who she could possibly invite over to join her between the sheets for sexy, naked, fun times.

Matt or Stefan would probably be up for no-strings rebound sex, but as bad as things were between her and Tyler right now, sleeping with one of his friends would make it even worse.

She knew Katherine was bisexual but unfortunately, her friend was in no way sexually attracted to her.

Bonnie was straight and, judging from the background noise she'd heard over the call, currently off somewhere with Marcel.

Her thoughts inevitably stray to Klaus, imagining the contrast of his blonde hair and tanned skin against the black of the bedding, his fingers sliding over the sheets and she trembles with a thrill of lust.

Except…

He was probably trying to recover from his hangover, jetlag and either still with his family or unpacking back at his apartment.

But when she climbs out of the shower and slips between the sheets, she finds herself reaching for her phone to message him.

To Klaus: How's your day going?

A few minutes later, he replies.

From Klaus: Mother 'suggested' I invite you around for lunch at some point in the near future because 'You have so few nice friends, Niklaus', Kol wants to know when he can ask you out. I hate my family and wish I could go back to London. How're you going, love?

She smiles, and her fingers rapidly swipe over the screen,

To Klaus: Got home to find that Tyler had changed the locks on MY house, with the lease in MY name and that not only had he taken his stuff, but MY TV, my laptop, my kitchen stuff, some of MY clothes, including PANTIES and stolen some jewellery that belonged to my great grandparents. I had to call the police and get the locks changed!

From Klaus: Bloody Hell, he is a right prick. Your friend should have twatted him in the head with a brick.

She laughs and rolls onto her back, the sheets pleasantly cool against her legs, and she feels her body begin to relax.

To Klaus: At least I found out before and not after the wedding. Your mom was right.

From Klaus: She often is, but I'll never admit that to her.

She's about to reply when she hears a key in her back door and panics for a moment before remembering that only four people in the entire world had keys to her house now.

Damon, Katherine, herself and…

"Come in, Matt." She calls as he lets himself in, his footstep heavy as he makes his way to her bedroom, leaning against the doorjamb and taking in the sight of her in bed,

"Hey," he says with a friendly grin, "How're you?"

She shrugs, "Tired."

He nods affably and holds up the box tucked under his arm, "Your laptop, jewellery and clothes are here, I think Carol was planning to pawn some of it but didn't have time…your TV is in my truck and I accidentally broke Tyler's x-box when I was carrying it out."

Caroline laughs quietly, "Thanks."

He sets the box down and leaves with such an unassuming air that she almost rethinks her earlier decision and calls him back to join her in bed.

But when she and Tyler finally talked, she wanted to be able to look him in the eye.

Although, that plan almost falls to pieces an hour later when she gets an email alerting her to the fact that Tyler had changed the name on the plane tickets she'd bought and put in their joint flight account so he could take his mom on their honeymoon.

God, that was like, eight different levels of gross.

Especially because they'd booked a honeymoon suite, with romantic couple activities.

Boy, did she need to scrub those images out of her mind.

But first, she needed to text Klaus and tell him everything.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N- Hi Everyone, thanks for the positive reviews, I'm having fun writing this story.

* * *

Caroline hadn't entirely known what to expect when she went back to work on what should have been day three of her honeymoon.

She'd figured that there was no way she could be lucky enough for everyone to treat it like a regular day and just go about their business, but she also hoped that they wouldn't flee from her like she was carrying the plague.

Even if she was a runaway bride returning to work at an event company that had a large nuptial-based clientele.

So, like a coward, she heads into work early under the pretext of getting a head start on the day, after all, before eight am there was no line at her favourite café, the streets were pretty empty and the only one at the reception desk was the security guard.

Johnny was a great guy, a former cop injured in the line of fire, who'd known her mom, so Caroline had done him a favour and requested him specifically from the security company. Not that this fell under her purview but Johnny was attractive in a silver fox kind of way so Genevieve didn't care.

She greets him with a smile and they usually make conversation but today she doesn't want to risk it, because Johnny had just got the hang of reading newspaper on his phone and Caroline doesn't want to run the risk of having him ask about the wedding.

The outcome of which, she was sure, had been relayed tweet by tweet to the world.

She hadn't quite been able to bring herself to check yet.

Or to figure out how to respond.

But, when she reaches her desk, only a little dusty since she left it last week, she immediately begins setting up, unloading her laptop, her water bottle, her coffee, her notepad and Tiffany pen.

Sitting down at her desk chair with a sigh, she has a moment of confusion before realizing that this wasn't her desk chair.

Rolling her eyes and scoffing, she takes it in hand and wheels it over to Aurora's desk, knowing without a doubt that her bitchy co-worker had taken the opportunity to try and switch them over while she was out of the office.

Okay. False start but she sits down at her correct chair and takes a deep breath, exhaling with a smile and powers up her laptop.

For the last year, she had been arranging her work-life around her wedding commitments, not taking on too many clients whose dates would interfere with hers and as such, she had no open jobs at this time.

However, she's in work mode now, so she licks her lips, scribbles on her notepad until she's figured out what she wants to say before logging onto Facebook.

She has an insane number of messages and notifications.

She doesn't want to check any of them. Not yet anyway, this seemed like something she should do while crying over ice-cream in the bathtub.

Not that she had a bathtub but maybe the shower floor would work just as well.

She knows she should have handled this yesterday, when Genevieve replied to her email letting her know that she was expected at work on Tuesday morning, but she'd instead spent her Monday sleeping and then gone to get her hair done, filling the few remaining hours stress-cleaning.

Or- avoiding this exact situation.

At least she hadn't prematurely changed her Facebook name to Caroline Lockwood.

But she's in worker mode, so she quickly changes her relationship status to single and types out her post.

Caroline Forbes.

 _'After a busy weekend, Tyler and I are not married and are no longer in a relationship. I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and thank everyone for respecting our privacy. Those who would like their wedding presents returned can speak to Carol Lockwood, who picked them up from the hotel.'_

Deep breath, press enter exhale and take a long sip on her coffee to try and ignore the fact that her cheeks were burning with humiliation.

Now to check her notifications.

She had two new friend requests.

One from Rebekah Mikaelson, who just said 'Hi' and one from Kol Mikaelson with the prompt, 'The Hot brother'

Rebekah, she adds immediately and Kol she adds but with the reply, 'I thought your name was Klaus?'

She then starts scanning Vogue and the other fashion magazines that she had online subscriptions for. Most of the clientele wanted the hottest events and for that, they wanted whatever was in season in terms of colour themes, catering and locations. This meant that a large part of Caroline's job was going through magazines and reading up on celebrity events to figure out what the latest trend was and build entire packages around that accordingly.

She's deep into a weird amalgamation of 'Back to Nature' and top of the line conveniences in locations that would cause irreparable damage to the environment when people start filtering into work.

She looks up with a smile, pretending not to see their surprise and goes back to work, receiving quiet hellos and fleeting but supportive touches on her shoulder before Aurora comes in.

" _Oh My God!_ "

Her Southern drawl wakes up the entire office. And Caroline turns in her chair and takes in the woman.

Aurora came from oil money, with a daddy who'd brought her high-school diploma, university degree and then her freedom where multiple DUI's would have seen her without a licence and possibly doing jail time.

She'd tried to start her career in New York but there had apparently been an incident with the husband of a senator that had seen her hastily relocating to Richmond. To a house on Monument Ave that her brother had bought for her and which, on her first day working at Tremaine Events, she had introduced herself by bragging about it having six bedrooms when she only needed one.

The other five sat empty, even when Genevieve's house had been found to have asbestos and Caroline had offered her couch before the boss had booked herself into a hotel, Aurora had continued bemoaning loudly how hard it was to live in a house where her bedroom was so far from the kitchen.

Aurora is chewing gum, despite it not even being nine and carrying her oversized Gucci handbag on her arm as she clomps into the office in her Gucci heels and Gucci dress.

She was a walking billboard for the company apparently, even though, very few Gucci ready-to-wear outfits could be called 'work appropriate'

"Oh My _God!_ " she repeats, coming to a stop before Caroline's desk, giving her nose a front row seat to a strong whiff of perfume Caroline would bet her life was also Gucci and stares down at her as if she's seen a ghost.

"I literally cannot believe you are here!" she announces for the office, the building and anyone passing by in the street,

"Like, after the disaster of your wedding, I assumed you'd blow your brains out. Your mom is a cop right, do you not have access to a gun?"

Through her family connections, Aurora provided a lot of business to Tremaine events, granted this business required the agency to try and source oversized chandeliers and the kind of decadence that two centuries ago would have inspired a revolution, so Caroline knows Genevieve probably won't take her side if she tackled Aurora to the ground.

"I'm not the kind of girl who dies over a broken heart," she replies, forcing a smile, "How was your weekend?"

"This is insane though…" she continues as if she hadn't heard Caroline speak,

"Like…how has Genevieve not fired you, you're obviously going to be bad luck now, no-one can hire you to organize a wedding if you can't even work yours."

Wow.

The millennial answer to moneyed-white trash.

"They can if they decide that the alternative is a barely tasteful plantation package with food so deep-fried it should come with a side of confederate flag." She snaps and Aurora reels back with a shriek, as if Caroline's insult had come out of nowhere.

She scurries off to the female bathrooms, to hog a stall as she weeps crocodile tears until somebody bit the bullet and went in to 'console' her.

Usually, the task fell to Genevieve's receptionist April but the girl only looks up from her phone, curls her lip in disgust and went back to her game.

"She's been a raging bitch since you went on leave," Melanie, another co-worker explained, "Literally, the very second you were out the door on your half-day, she announced that Genevieve should fire you because after your wedding you'd probably start having babies anyway. Then, she suggested she should be given your desk and that you were probably going to throw yourself off a bridge so we should take your name off the site."

Caroline forcibly swallowed her rage, "That's as good a reason as any to go on living well."

Melanie laughed, "Totally, eventually even Genevieve told her to shut up."

Caroline laughs and turns back to her laptop, judging she's got a few seconds to check Facebook before Genevieve came in at two minutes past nine, as she did every morning without fail.

She sees that she has another Facebook friend request, this one from Esther Mikaelson.

From Esther: _'Dear Caroline, Niklaus failed to mention that you work at Tremaine! Tell me, do you know who handled Dahlia Black's birthday party? The woman lorded the event over us all for months as being 'the very best', which it was and refused to tell us who organized it, I'd love to have the same person handle my charity balls'_

Urgh, Dahlia Black.

Liz had stopped by her office one day, seen her in passing and called her the 'personification of child abduction cases'

Caroline friended Esther, 'That was Melanie Kadare, I'll send you her contact details.'

She then looks at her phone as it buzzes, seeing Klaus' name on the screen,

 _From: Klaus- 'Please ignore any and all Facebook requests from my family, it's how they lure in victims to their cult.'_

She laughs types a quick reply just as Genevieve comes in the door, large sunglasses framing her face,

 _To: Klaus- 'Too late, your mom has already given me the recipe for the kool-aid'_

"Good morning, everyone." Genevieve calls as she strides across the floor, straight to her office and Caroline grabs her notepad and pen, waiting five minutes before catching April's attention and jerking her head to the door. April purses her lips and glances down at her laptop, checking Genevieve's schedule before nodding and Caroline takes a breath, ignoring all eyes on her as she makes her way to the closed office.

"Enter," Genevieve calls and Caroline slips in, closing the door behind her,

"You look good, all things considered," her boss comments as she sits down, "Do yourself a favour and don't gain weight or let yourself go," she advises,

"In fact, make sure you are the best version of yourself online so your haters can't say Tyler was right to cheat on you."

Katherine was probably going to say the same thing in a few days. Caroline knows that the advice, while hurtful, was well-intended and helpful, so she nods,

"I will," she promises,

"Now, I finished my events before taking leave and need new jobs," she prompts and Genevieve makes a face as she looks to her tablet,

"You probably won't want me on weddings." She says so her boss doesn't have to and swallows the humiliation as she hums and scrolls through.

"It's April," Genevieve muses, "Which means pretty soon we'll be heading into birthday party season."

Caroline repressed a shudder and forced a smile.

Children's birthday parties were the worst. Parents always waited until the month of, to start planning and didn't understand that venues and play areas couldn't be booked at the last minute without extra costs.

And there were always the parents of one of the attending kids who decided then and there that their child suddenly had a deathly allergy to every single thing on the menu.

Still, it was work.

Genevieve does seem sympathetic as she asks Caroline to start getting packages together for children under fifteen, sweet-sixteens being a whole other ballpark, and promises her that when the philanthropists and lunching ladies came in to start organizing their charity galas, Caroline would see some of the work.

"Oh," Caroline says, half-out of her seat, "That reminds me, I think someone might be contacting Melanie for a charity ball."

Genevieve raises an eyebrow, " _You_ referred them?"

Her tone is doubtful and Caroline doesn't exactly blame her. While Mystic Falls had given her plenty of opportunities to attend and plan balls, masquerades and luncheons, the town itself existed in a bubble, closed off from the rest of the world socially and not particularly wealthy in comparison, which meant she had left her home with no decent contacts to the kind of people Genevieve called friends.

She nods, "Yeah, I met her over the weekend, I'm friend with her son, her name is Esther and she's really nice and I'm pretty sure rich and…"

Genevieve is staring at her wide-eyed, "Not Esther _Mikaelson?!_ "

"Yeah," Caroline pauses uncertainly, "Do you know her?"

Genevieve can't quite seem to believe her ears, "Esther Mikaelson? Widow of a Marquis, who built a huge property development company that practically rebuilt New Orleans after Katrina. Who sits on charity boards across Richmond…that Esther Mikaelson?"

Caroline bites her lip, "With a k?" she queries unsure, taking Genevieve's tablet and bringing up Facebook to see Caroline's friend list and Esther's profile comes up, showing a profile picture of her in a ballgown, standing on a staircase with a glass of champagne in hand.

"How?!" Genevieve demands, "I've been trying to meet with her for years, how did you meet her over the weekend?!"

Caroline tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "Well, after I left my wedding, I met her son, Klaus and had lunch with the family the next day…"

She trails off and Genevieve takes off her glasses to glare at her, "I love and loathe you right now," she declares, "Go before I decide whether to kill or kiss you."

Caroline manages to hide her smile until she is out the door, but she does slide into April's space and hug the girl from behind, smothering an excited squeal just as Aurora's screech breaks all known laws of sound.

"How the hell are you friends with Klaus Mikaelson!"

* * *

"Are you kidding me?!"

Elijah smirked as Charlie backed into the change rooms, "Who the hell reschedules decompression surgery to go yachting off the coast of Florida?!"

"Nouveau-riche people with access to non-prescription morphine," Elijah answers with a sigh,

"Which means you and I have the day off, want to grab a drink?"

Charlie is still glaring at his phone, "Well, it's only eleven am but thanks to this we've been up all night. Sure, let's get drunk."

Typically, bars near hospitals were a good idea, especially when those getting off eighteen hour shifts were too tired to even consider staggering any further than necessary to get a drink.

The one near Hope Zion was called Benny's and Elijah thought he knew most of the bartenders in there, so he was slightly surprised when he and Charlie parked at the bar and found a brunette woman mixing a cocktail.

"Katherine." he blurted her name before he could help himself and she looked up, as surprised as he was, "Oh, hey man-slut," she greeted, "Come here often?"

Charlie's eyebrows go up at the nickname and Elijah releases a ragged sigh,

"Often enough to know you are new here."

Katherine smirked, "Oh I don't work here, I just got tired of waiting for the bartender to serve me."

She jerks her head and they see the emergency exit propped open, "Neckbeard has been on his smoke break for like thirty minutes now trying to convince some girls he met online to send him nudes."

She pours out the drink and sends it sliding down the bar to where a woman was waiting and took the payment,

"Cash only," she tells them, "I don't have the code for the pos system."

Charlie orders two beers and pays for them both, Katherine handing him the change before taking a shot of tequila and hoisting herself up onto the bar, swinging around and landing in the stool next to Elijah. "So, any idea where we are?" she asks, "I haven't been home yet and am still too buzzed to figure it out."

Elijah checked his watch to make sure he'd got the right time and it was noon.

He takes a sip of the beer and hands it off to Charlie, "How about I drive you home?" he offers, he thinks gallantly but she scowls,

"I don't know, your car is probably a breeding field of skanky diseases."

Still she makes an effort to stand in eight inch heels and Elijah claps Charlie on the back as she goes to find her jacket,

"You know I'm going to ask, tomorrow right?" he warns and Elijah sighs,

"Yeah, doesn't mean I have to answer though."

Katherine let him lead her to the hospital parking lot, snorting when drew out his keys and turned off the alarm to his Porsche.

"No wonder you slept with Jules," She laughed, "You are such a starter-package man-whore."

She still slides into the passenger seat and begins rifling through his glovebox, "Do you have a Brony membership card in here?" she teases and he rolls his eyes as he buckles in her seatbelt,

"I am not a men's right activist, thank-you very much."

She gives him a doubtful stare but also taps her address into the GPS and they descend the ramp,

They fall quiet as he drives and he wonders if she's falling asleep or having a rough comedown before she turns to him, "What's she like?"

He frowns in confusion, "Jules, you mean?" he clarifies and she nods,

"Aside from a homewrecker, who chooses to cheat, is she funny, sexy, a skilled magician?"

He concentrates on the traffic for a while as he tries to figure out how to answer. He knows that whatever he says, he's already ruined his chance with Katherine, so he might as well be honest.

"Manipulative." He answers, "I didn't realize it at the time of course, but she was telling me everything that I wished to hear about myself, things she only could have known if Niklaus had told her, she whispered them in my ear and the next thing I know, I'm destroying my little brother's trust in me."

"I'm not trying to resolve myself of blame," he adds, hastily, "I betrayed my brother in a way that is completely unforgivable but I've had a lot of time to try and figure out why I did it."

"And?" she prompts, causing him to sigh as the GPS beeped and he looked around for a park,

"Ego," he admits, "Ego and a pretty woman."

She hums and shrugs, "Ask any man that question and they'll say they were seduced, that she trapped them, as if they didn't have any choice."

"I did have a choice," he counters, "I made the wrong one."

He turns in his seat to face her, "Are you wondering what led Tyler to cheat?"

Katherine jerks her head and unbuckles her seat belt, "Come on up."

Elijah has always lived in wealthy areas, so he's not entirely sure if Katherine lives in a bad neighborhood or one of those trendy ones that his peers will be buying property in to gentrify and whitewash in a year or so.

Her apartment is in a converted warehouse with an old elevator that would have moved large goods back in the day and the he can hear the water pipes screaming in protest as she leads him down the hall.

She has a studio loft, but not like Niklaus' where everything was top of the line, but one where nothing matched, yet Elijah suspected it would be the height of fashion for people outside of his tax bracket.

"Tea." She says and he isn't sure it's a question because she's put a kettle on to boil and is throwing two tea bags into mismatched mugs.

"I always knew Caroline and Tyler were going to break up," she murmurs leaning on the counter and he mirrors her position,

"He looks good on paper, wealthy wasp from an old family, with a college degree working at some business in Richmond CBD."

She stops and gives him a pointed stare and he figures that most of that applies to him as well.

"But I know his father was a serial cheater on his mother, who is crazy as a barrel of rabid monkeys…"

"You know she's taking Caroline's place on their honeymoon?" he interjects, causing her eyes to go wide in surprise, " _What?!_ "

He nods, glad to be able to reveal this piece of salacious gossip, "She announced it while Tyler was back at the hospital."

Katherine shuddered, "Well, even though I hate how Caroline figured out Tyler wasn't good for her, I'm glad she knows now instead of in ten years when she has to try and divorce him."

At least divorce would be an option for her, his own mother had had to wait until Mikael drank himself half-to-death and then fell into a Bayou swamp while wolf-hunting.

He's about to murmur something sympathetic when the pager app on his phone goes off.

"Sorry," he apologizes, "A patient Charlie and I were meant to operate on today, she changed her mind and is coming in after all."

He groaned and hoped that Charlie would still be fit to operate.

Hopefully, he hadn't drunk too much after Elijah had bailed on him.

Katherine walks him to the door, "You know, your slutty nature aside," she says conversationally and he hears his last chances with her burning to ash,

"I think you'll make a good friend, man-skank."

Elijah grins, "Well, at least until you run out of new names for me."

* * *

"Give me that _bloody phone!_ "

Lucien scrambled to get away from Niklaus, the two of them leaving a path of chaos as they dashed around the office space. A few artists looking up from their sketching boards but otherwise not giving them any notice.

They're supposed to be working on cover designs for a new series coming out just before Christmas and the author had creative control which meant they were dealing with a very finicky young man who kept sending everything back as 'not cool enough', but that morning the two of them had been sent samples for a new energy drink and hadn't been able to concentrate on anything for a solid hour.

Which was why Lucien had climbed onto a desk and was balancing precariously as he Facebook-stalked Caroline Forbes.

"Nice!" he declares after he eventually finds her, "You know, not as hot as Freya, but…"

"Refer to my sister as hot again and I'll feed you your liver." Klaus grouses, kicking the table legs and causing his friend to wobble uncertainly before jumping down to the ground, "So, how soon before you can ask her out?"

He raises his eyebrows, "Her fiancée cheated on her not even…" he pauses and checks his watch, "Ninety-six hours ago."

"Yeah," Lucien makes a face, "I'm guessing you don't want to go the re-bound sex route."

"No," Klaus answers quickly, before Lucien can once again begin mourning the fact that Freya had slept with him after breaking up with Keelin and then never called him again.

"And in spite of what, nearly everyone is telling me, I'm going to be her friend for the foreseeable future."

"Real friend and Facebook friend." Lucien quipped, "I friended her for you, you're welcome."

He didn't.

Klaus quickly brings up his profile to see that Lucien had indeed sent Caroline a friend request on his behalf.

But…she had accepted.

Which was good.

Until he sees that half his bloody family had friended her as well.

Dammit.

* * *

A/N- Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Happy 2018!

* * *

Caroline hadn't been deliberately avoiding her mother since the wedding, she just hadn't made herself available to talk to her over the phone or in person.

She wasn't a monster of course, she had sent her a text, letting her know she was safe and she's pretty sure that Matt was reporting everything back to Liz under threat of incarceration otherwise, but she had put off giving her testimony.

Until Thursday, when Liz had texted her that morning,

 _From Mom_ : _Sweetie, you know I support your need to pretend everything is okay and business as usual, but we are going to have to talk about this. I can be in Richmond this afternoon for late lunch or early dinner._

Caroline read the message with a sigh and considered that she wanted to try the new mid-range restaurant that had opened up down the street anyway. It had the benefit of looking nice but not too expensive, which considering she had spent a lot of money on a wedding and honeymoon that she hadn't even got to experience, was just was she was after at the moment.

At least, until her commissions began rolling in again.

But right now, she was glaring at her budget application on her laptop and regretting having spent the extra two hundred dollars on the flower package, which while it had definitely been perfect, had ultimately been a waste.

Fortunately, she could throw herself into her work, distracting herself with learning about the latest Disney or Pixar characters that every kid now wanted for their birthday theme and which vegan bakery in town had the best totally-can't-tell-everything-is-substituted cakes and desserts.

When two pm rolls around, she gets a text from her mother that she's downstairs and waits another ten minutes so she can catch up with Johnny before informing Melanie that she's headed to lunch.

Melanie, who had already been contacted by Esther Mikaelson and whose pupils had practically turned into green dollar signs at the commission rates she could be looking forward to.

Caroline vaguely remembers that her co-worker had promised her first-born child in gratitude but considering she's newly single and thinking about taking a vow of chastity, she's definitely not ready for motherhood.

* * *

As expected, Liz in deep in conversation with Johnny the security guard and Caroline practically has to strongarm her out of the building, her cheeks burning from the sympathetic glance the man had given her.

She guessed her mom had told him why she wasn't on her honeymoon.

At least Liz waits until they've sat down inside the restaurant and ordered their entrees and mains before diving into the conversation,

"So," she puts her hands on the table in the same position in which she interrogated suspects.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Not particularly.

Still, Caroline starts giving her the bare bones of the tragic clusterfuck that was her wedding day and finds that by the time she's covered Sunday lunch with the Mikaelson family, she's able to segue-way into how she felt about the catastrophe.

"I mean, Tyler and I have been together since high school," she rants, digging into the bread sticks with relish before remembering Genevieve's warning about gaining weight,

"I thought we would be together forever and then…he pulls this crap on me? On our _wedding day_ no less? If he'd got cold-feet, fine, I would have understood that, but what I don't even know is, if a guy who cheats on the big day and then goes off on the honeymoon anyway is a first-time cheater or if this is just the first time I've caught him…"

She pauses to sip on her white wine while the waiter delivers their meals and then continues,

"Seriously, I'm sure in a year or so I'll look back and be glad because any guy who cheats on his wedding day could cheat any day after that but right now, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know, I feel like something is coming around the corner, something as bad or even worse and just treading water."

Liz clears her throat, sticking her fork into her pasta, "Well, Tyler cheated on you and Carol was…peak Carol, so sweetie, those two can't really outdo themselves at this point,"

"And…" she adds, after taking a mouthful of spaghetti, "While I always thought Tyler was an okay person, I am glad Carol isn't becoming a member of our family after all, that woman has always been a monster."

"You know she's refusing to give back wedding gifts?" Liz reveals, causing Caroline to choke on her soup,

"Mmm-hmmm, she's told everyone who asked that _she_ and Tyler would be keeping them as recompense for the trauma of the day."

Caroline groaned, "Oh my god, she is seriously the _worst!_ "

"Not to mention the things she said to your father and Steven could and would constitute as a hate crime."

The two of them spend the rest of their lunch bitching out Carol Lockwood, suggesting that she'd botoxed her face and wondering if she would be wearing bikinis for her and Tyler's honeymoon. And Caroline is feeling deliciously mean as she and Liz walk back to her workplace, where they come across a familiar stately blonde in the lobby.

"Oh, Caroline dear!" Esther waved, "Thank goodness you're here, I think I broke your dear boss, Genevieve."

Considering Genevieve had once had to plan and oversee eight political campaign parties over a St Patrick's Day weekend with politicians 'rediscovering' their Irish heritage, Caroline doubts anything could actually break the woman, and hastens to reassure Esther of the fact.

"I don't know," the woman hums, "See I'm on the board of quite a few charities and foundations and have a number of events planned this year."

She then looks over her shoulder, "Oh, you must be Caroline's mother, my you two have such a resemblance."

Liz smiles, holding out her hand, "You must be Esther, thank-you so much for looking after my daughter on the weekend."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all," she demurs, "Really, she's such a delight, so much nicer than the scruffy heathens I call my children."

The two of them begin exchanging pleasantries, asking questions about their careers, discussing the weather and how terrible traffic was in Richmond.

Caroline checks her phone, sees she's running late and tells them that she has to head back upstairs.

They hardly even notice her leaving.

* * *

"You know," Nik groused on the phone to Elijah, "I say this often, but I am actually legitimately concerned now that we're a family of psychopaths."

Elijah made a non-committal hum as he read over his files, "I wouldn't say psychopaths, perhaps a few of us leaning towards sociopathy, would I be comfortable having us all tested? Definitely not, but thus far we haven't strayed too far into the realm of hoarding of coffins in basements."

Yet, is the unspoken word in that statement and Nik wonders when his family just accepted the fact that they were all mad as bloody hatters.

"Mother has somehow schemed to have a half dozen foundations book Caroline's company for events this year," Nik revealed, ignoring Lucien barging into his apartment,

"Alright, that is cause for concern," his brother admits, "However, I think we can hold off on the intervention until she puts Caroline's name on the Christmas card."

Nik pauses, "You don't think she would, do you?"

Elijah's laugh comes loudly down the phone line, "Good God, Niklaus, _no_! At least not this Christmas, but unless Caroline presents with some serious flaws between now and next November, I might put the idea in her head myself. She is a catch…"

"Oh, sod off," he interrupts, "She's been single for a grand total of one-hundred-and-twenty bloody hours, how is it that nobody in this family understands restraint?"

Lucien, who had been perusing his fridge, bursts out laughing, "You come from a family of alcoholics," he adds, unhelpfully, "You lot can't even restrain yourself until noon on a weekend, why should you practise self-discipline in any other area of your lives?"

Nik hangs up on Elijah, because he's not the sympathetic ear he was hoping for and turns to his friend, "Why are you even in my home?"

Lucien grins, "Rebekah messaged me," he explains, pausing to scull a beer,

"Said I should 'get the goss' from you about your feelings for Caroline."

Burying his head in his hands, Nik issued a long, smothered curse word that apparently caused his friend to feel a rare stab of sympathy,

"Relax mate," he said, patting his shoulder, "I think she's just interested in doing an internship with Caroline's company and wants a definite in."

"And what the bloody hell do you want?" he demands, "Because last I checked, Freya isn't using my shower or lounging about my apartment in her knickers."

Lucien raised his eyebrows, "Well that's a relief," he smirks, "I know you lot have the whole close sibling relationships that only children dream of, but flouncing around each other in your underwear strays a little too far into George R. R. Martin fantasy territory."

Ah yes, Game of Thrones, the reason he'd learnt that there were people out there who fantasized about blonde twins or siblings, regardless of their gender.

The reason he and Rebekah had quietly agreed that they would never go out drinking together because they didn't want to risk those kinds of propositions in bars or clubs.

"Speaking of your sisters," Lucien begins, "I'm getting a call from one right now."

He tosses the phone to Nik who presses the button without even looking, "Don't you have enough minions in your high school without adding my co-workers to your bloody collection?"

"Oi," Rebekah snapped, "Mother said you're not allowed to swear at me."

"We're British," he points out, "Bloody is no more a swear word for us than arse."

Rebekah inhales sharply, giving a hum of discontent, "It's still vulgar."

They'd be going for hours at this rate.

"What do you want, little sister?" he demands, snapping his fingers at Lucien when he goes to drape himself on his couch,

"We have to do work experience for credit," she explains, offering him only half the information and assuming he knows the rest,

"I want to do my placement with Caroline's company."

Because God forbid she go the easy route and take a position at his job or even Sage's restaurant.

"Okay," he sighs, "And when do you have to do this placement?"

When he receives only silence as an answer, he reaches for his own phone, wondering if his sister had left everything until the literal last minute.

Instead, when he prompts her again, she gives him a date that he has to actually check on the calendar.

"That is the better part of a year away!" he protests, "There is no chance your school requires you to have everything sorted before the term prior!"

Rebekah issues a ragged sigh that Nik would expect from his older brother after a solid twelve hour surgery,

"Of course not, you blithering idiot," she confirms, "But it's best to ask Caroline now!"

He snaps his fingers at Lucien again, pointing to the wet bar, because his friend's comments about his family's alcoholism had hit a little too close to home and he didn't need him to know how expertly Nik could decant a whisky bottle one handed.

Except he receives only a pointed middle finger in response and it becomes necessary to throw a wooden spoon at the interloper.

"I assume there's a reason why?" he queries, "Some important detail I am apparently missing?"

"Duh…" his sister drawled, "Same reason why mother is being so friendly to her right now!"

Because she was an old biddy who apparently wanted all her children married off like it was the tenth century?

He barely manages to form the pronoun before Rebekah launches into her explanation.

"When a girl breaks up with a guy she's been with for a long time, she's left feeling vulnerable, especially if they have the same friendship group…" she begins,

"So, she needs to do a lot of socialising and reaching out to receive affirmation that she still has her friends, hasn't been abandoned, etcetera. At the moment, Caroline is in the best frame of mind to make new friends and down the line, she'll be very grateful to us."

Right.

That was both brilliant and slightly concerning in its blatant emotional manipulation.

He would expect nothing less from a Mikaelson.

"I'll speak to her later." he promises. Making a mental note to maybe warn his new friend.

Screw what Elijah said, at a certain point, they should probably get a psychological evaluation.

Perhaps they could even get a discount, for every five diagnoses of psychopathy, you'd get your sixth free.

* * *

"Hey baby," she purred into the phone, "I haven't heard your sexy voice in so long, I miss you."

Ending the call, Jules resisted the urge to hurl her device against the wall, settling for tossing it violently onto the bed instead, where it was almost immediately lost amongst the blankets and pillows.

She then stops to consider whether or not she'd put it on silent, it wouldn't do to miss a call from Tyler.

Although, she hadn't even checked the time difference between East Coast and St Tropez and urgh, who the hell even took their mother on their honeymoon in the first place?

If the fiancée wasn't an option, then surely the mistress should come next?

 _Idiot_.

Of course, this idiocy was why Jules had been drawn to Tyler in the first place.

His idiocy, his ego and his arrogance.

The perfect combination for any conman- or conwoman- worth their salt.

Hell, any half-decent scammer.

And it hadn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes.

Usually, Jules had to aim for men approaching their midlife crisis, when it was still early enough for them to be so flattered by the attention of a pretty young woman that they'd hand over their black AMEX before they'd even got to the second date but late enough that their common sense had been overridden by their narcissism.

Typically, her targets were middle class men or those who were first-generation wealthy, the ones that hadn't grown up having to fend off flatterers and leeches and didn't know the warning signs.

Until Niklaus Mikaelson.

She'd nearly hit the jackpot with him.

He came from a long line of money, but family trauma- _thank-you_ daddy Mikaelson- meant that he and his siblings had careers and a humility you didn't find in anyone who could claim a Plantagenet as an ancestor. They used their trust funds to pad out their lifestyles, not fund them entirely and when she'd met Sage, she realised that they didn't insist on marrying within their own class or tax bracket.

Unfortunately, Nik hadn't been as ready to settle down as she would have liked, so she'd made a skilled play for his older brother Elijah.

She'd had it all planned out, she would seduce him, they would be caught in the act, his guilt would distance him from his family and gradually isolate him until she was all he had, they would be married and after a few years she'd walk away with a hefty divorce settlement.

Except she'd totally misjudged him.

Turned out, Elijah valued his brother more than he did a girlfriend.

Even a hot one.

So, he'd ended things with her, and despite her grovelling and attempts to win him back, he'd cut off contact completely.

Which is why she'd been forced to move on to Tyler Lockwood.

He was from a tiny little town that didn't even register as a potential weekend getaway from Richmond. A moneyed, first-timer in Richmond, with an unacknowledged fear from being the tiny fish in the big pond for the first time in his life.

And with a high-school girlfriend as his fiancé?

He'd been almost too easy for Jules to catch.

Of course, he wasn't a total monster, he had tried to break things off in the days leading up to his wedding, but all it had taken was a naked selfie the night before and she'd found herself being invited up to his room.

If only they hadn't been caught.

She'd almost felt a stab of guilt when she'd seen the bride-to-be staring at them in horror.

Almost.

It wasn't her fault after all, she couldn't steal someone who didn't want to be taken away.

Besides, it seemed to be working out in her favour.

Tyler was probably going to be single now.

And once word got out, probably with a lot less friends than he'd started with.

Which meant if she played her cards right, she might soon be Mrs Lockwood.

At least until she found someone even wealthier to 'fall in love' with.

The only issue might be his mommy dearest.

After all- what kind of man took their mother on their honeymoon?


	8. Chapter 8

A/N- Yes, I'm still alive.

* * *

"Tyler… _Tyler_ , darling!"

Tyler winced and kept his head down, hoping his mom would spot him quickly and then head over to the table.

No such luck.

" _There_ you are!" she announced, as if they had been separated for hours or even days.

No such luck.

She came around the table, bending down to give him a kiss on the cheek and he resisted the urge to flinch.

A few tables away, he sees a young woman glance up from the newspaper, snort disdainfully and turn her attention back to her reading.

He doesn't need to confront her or study her for long to understand what she was thinking.

 _'Mommy's boy, no thank-you.'_

He scowled and hid his face in his breakfast, devouring the too-soft bacon until he could handle his mother.

It wasn't that he didn't love her, it was just that he hadn't spent this much time around her non-stop since he'd moved out of home for college and it was hard being within shouting distance twenty-four-seven.

He needed a break.

One he probably wasn't going to get on his honeymoon-turned-family vacation.

But every moment his mom was prattling on, remarking on every single thing she noticed or flirting with the waiters that kept her cocktail glass perpetually filled, he felt his nerves fraying until he wanted to shout at her to shut up.

Except doing that in a public space would probably get him tackled by some social justice warrior ever on the lookout for an abusive asshole to boot stomp.

So, he wolfs his breakfast down as quickly as possible, ignoring his mother's pointed looks and quiet suggestions to slow down,

"Hungry." he offers as an excuse, before standing, and telling her he was headed down to the beach, leaving his plate for the waiters to clear and clean.

Caroline had been the one to choose their honeymoon and had declared this resort 'perfect' in terms of price, amenities, distance from the local shops, cafes and restaurants, and the stunning beachfront location.

So far, Tyler had spent most of his day on a lounge chair, mellowed out on painkillers and the endless cocktails the staff brought him.

It interrupted his thought processes enough that he could distract himself by playing games on his iPad or staring out at the water and not think about how his wedding day had panned out.

At least until he sat up suddenly to receive his next drink and felt the twinge of pain from his pelvic injury.

Thanks to that stupid slut Katherine Pierce.

Liz had actually let her get away with it too.

He couldn't believe it, the son of the former Mayor but apparently, he couldn't get justice in this world.

Worse, it was because of her that everyone knew why he and Caroline hadn't got married that day. If she'd just kept her dumb mouth shut, Tyler could have played it off as a medical emergency, Caroline's appendix had ruptured or she'd got a stomach ulcer or something, but no, now everyone knew he'd cheated on his wedding day.

And yeah, it was kind of bad that he'd done that, he wasn't saying it wasn't, but one last hurrah before a lifetime of monogamy wasn't the worst crime in the world.

Imagine if he and Caroline had lived in one of those countries where women weren't legally allowed to leave the house without a guy or could have acid splashed in their face.

In comparison, was what he had done really so bad?

After all, he'd been feeling slightly nervous and on edge leading up to the big day, frustrated by Caroline's constant complaints about his mom 'interfering' with the organizing and 'offending' Bill and Steven with a few non-pc jokes, and Jules had really helped him get his head in the right place.

Standing in that hotel room, he'd realised that he could totally see himself spending the next twenty or thirty years of his life with Caroline if he wanted to.

Being with her was so easy.

But now, now, he was logging onto the resort wifi and checking his social media to see that he had hate-mail from Katherine Pierce (obviously) spam email about erectile dysfunction and penis enlargements and he's going to assume those came from Katherine Pierce as well.

Weirdly enough, he has messages from some of his old football buddies, along the lines of 'Sorry you got caught, man' or 'Dude, massive game!'

Somehow, seeing that he had the approval and respect of the guys who had never left Mystic Falls and in their heads, hadn't ever moved on from their high-school glory days didn't do much for his sense of self-worth.

He also has some voicemails from Jules, and some sexts which have him shifting in his lounge chair and then wincing as he remembered the pain.

And the fact that his mother is in the lounge chair next to him.

So, deciding to check Jules' messages later, he turns to Facebook and sees that he's been tagged in a post by Caroline.

Nervously, he puts the phone down, finishes his drink, stands up slowly and walks down to the water's edge, letting the waves wash over his feet a few times before returning to his phone and reading the notification.

' _After a busy weekend, Tyler and I are not married and are no longer in a relationship. I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and thank everyone for respecting our privacy. Those who would like their wedding presents returned can speak to Carol Lockwood, who picked them up from the hotel.'_

Okay.

Simple, dignified and without blaming anyone, exactly what he would have expected from Caroline Forbes.

He reads over it a few times before processing it in its entirety.

'No longer in a relationship'

 _What?!_

He scrolls to her personal information and sees that she had in fact changed her relationship status to single.

Was she actually serious?

They hadn't even spoken since her bitch of a best friend had put him in the hospital but she'd just decided that they were over? She wasn't even willing to talk it through with him?

This was just like her, the control-freak, having to decide and organise everything because she didn't think anyone else could do the job properly.

And then she got annoyed when he didn't offer to help but what was even the point if she just took over anyway?

Yeah, he'd made a mistake but was she really willing to walk away from a ten-year relationship just like that? All couples had their issues, they worked through them.

Caroline Forbes had written him off and was probably already on a dating app, searching for the guy who met all her criteria.

As if he even existed.

She had ridiculously ambitious standards for a woman only a few years away from thirty.

Well, if she was going to just move on and throw away their years together as if they'd been nothing then there was nothing stopping him from doing the same.

Jules doesn't pick up the first time he rings, but by the second, he's at his hotel room and she's answering halfway through the first ring,

"About time," her voice filters through the phone and he chuckles in surprise at her impatient tone,

"I missed you." She adds, her apology both sincere and somehow sexy.

"Missed you too," he offers, even if it wasn't a hundred percent true, "Sorry I haven't contacted you, things have been crazy for me."

"Totally," she murmurs sympathetically, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Actually, he does, and not with his mom, because she kept making it all about how it affected _her_ and neither Matt nor Stefan had been in contact with him since his wedding day.

He just wanted someone to talk to. And perhaps the girl he'd fooled around with wasn't the best person in the world to be a part of this conversation, but she was the only one offering at the moment.

"Everything has just been crazy, you know?" he begins, "Caroline has just completely cut me out of her life, thanks to her reaction and Katherine, literally everyone knows what happened and I'd invited my boss to the wedding so he'll probably have a terrible opinion of me and…" he groans as that sinks in,

"I can probably kiss any raise or promotion goodbye for the next financial year, maybe even longer if he has a really good memory, and I had planned to nominate Tremaine Events to host our Christmas party and show off my connections and now that's off the table…"

He stops and runs a hand through his hair, "I'm rambling."

Jules makes a little noise on the other end of the line, "So ramble, baby, I'm still listening."

She was too, just listening and not constantly interrupting him with solutions to his problems but just letting him vent.

Caroline had never done that, she'd always been too proactive, couldn't never hear of an issue without wanting to grab a legal pad and pen and list out all the ways to resolve it.

He'd never realised before now just how irritating that was.

"And I'm going to have to find a place to live when I get back…" he continues.

"And move all my stuff in before I go back to work."

* * *

Katherine Pierce in a private message to Caroline Forbes

 _From Katherine: Is Bonnie alive?_

 _From Katherine: Genuine question_

 _From Katherine: Haven't heard from her in days_

 _From Caroline: Have you tried calling her?_

 _From Katherine: Who uses their phones as phones anymore?!_

 _From Katherine: Genuine question_

 _From Katherine: Did not know that was still a thing_

 _From Caroline: How about I call her?_

 _From Katherine: You do that_

* * *

Caroline had to roll her eyes at the string of messages from her friend, she did love Katherine, but she was the first to admit that despite everything, she was a little spoiled. Not that her own family had been overly indulgent, but where they had failed to cater to Katherine's every whim, the rest of the town had gladly stepped in. Shop assistants giving her discounts and waiters giving her free food and drinks, teachers letting her off easy when she handed in homework late or taking time out of their free periods to offer her one-on-one tutorials, bosses not reprimanding her when she came into work late.

As such, she was a weird amalgamation of fierce independence and expectation that life would always work out for her, with someone usually there to help her out.

Or someone to do the simple tasks when she couldn't be bothered.

Like making sure Bonnie was alright.

* * *

Caroline Forbes in a private message to Bonnie Bennett __

 _From Caroline: Hey, how are you?_

* * *

She sent the message and checked the time, making a mental note to call her friend if she hadn't responded in an hour and panic if she couldn't contact her in two. At one point, she had tried to convince all her friends to go on one of the many device or friend locator apps but the idea had never got off the ground. Either because it had the potential for a severe privacy violation or simply because getting half a dozen adults with their own lives and responsibilities to do anything without much planning prior was damn near impossible.

And yes, admittedly it was a little control-freak-on-crack for Caroline to be able to want to find her friends in situations like these, but if they'd had the app on her would-have-been-wedding day, they wouldn't have been nearly as panicked…

Oh wait, she hadn't had her phone.

Never mind.

She gives herself a little shake and focuses her attention on the program in front of her where she was trying to amalgamate nearly every Disney Princess, and recent Barbies into a nine-year-old girl's birthday party in a way that was both fun for the child and met the expectations of her parents. The parents simultaneously wanted it to be the biggest, most entertaining event outside of a theme park or musical, but without hitting four figures in the expense bill.

She manages a few options, collating the data into colourful reports which would eventually be packaged and sent to the parents for them to read over, pick apart and argue with her about the price.

Still, she's checking the time every fifteen minutes and when she's had no response from Bonnie, she takes a deep breath and logs on to social media.

Occasionally, Caroline's friends liked to wander off- _Katherine_ \- or go on random adventures- _Enzo_ \- and forgot to let anyone know beforehand. Thankfully, one of the benefits of having such an attractive friend group is that people were always taking photos of them, so tracking them down via the internet wasn't too hard.

There's nothing on Facebook, Snapchat or twitter, but on Instagram she finds Bonnie tagged in a photo and pulls it up, studying it carefully.

Her friend is definitely at a commercial kitchen, bits of flour on her arms and laughing at something off camera, looking happy and not like a hostage, which is some relief.

So, having found out that Bonnie wasn't being held in an underground dungeon, she makes an educated guess and pulls up her contact information for Marcel Gerard.

* * *

Caroline Forbes in a private message to Marcel Gerard.

 _To Marcel: Hi, this is Caroline Forbes, don't worry there isn't an emergency, but can you please tell Bonnie to check her phone?_

 _From Marcel: Okay._

 _From Marcel: She's just washing up, give it about twenty minutes_

* * *

Twenty minutes?

 _Really?!_

"You owe me so much right now," Caroline crows when Bonnie finally calls her,

"Seriously?! You had _sex_ in a public building with windows that _large_? How are you not under arrest this very second?"

Bonnie doesn't immediately answer, although Caroline can hear her friend trying to find the words for a solid minute,

"You should have been a private investigator," she eventually grumbles, "It's just weird how good you are at this."

Caroline snorts, "Please, I just do enough baking to know that it doesn't take twenty minutes to get food off your hands."

"For what it's worth," Bonnie continues, "We weren't having sex anywhere near the food, we were in his office."

" _Details!_ "

"No," she answered firmly, "Marcel is sitting like three feet away from me, I'm not a monster."

Sighing, Caroline checked her calendar, "Then how about drinks tonight?"

There's some communication off the phone, Bonnie putting her hand over the receiver as she confers with Marcel and Caroline tunes out, sending her documents to the printer as she waits.

"We're actually hitting a nearby bar," Bonnie tells her, "It's supposed to be really…"

"I'm not third-wheeling a date," she interrupts, firmly, "I'm not that hopeless, yet."

Bonnie scoffs, "Please, you'd make any date awesome, but this is actually a group thing, I've convinced Marcel to turn his company as green as possible and I'm going to try and network with the owner of the restaurant."

Bonnie had started her own company where she came up with plans for small to mid-sized businesses to become as sustainable and energy efficient as possible, sourcing them the necessary products or putting them in touch with the best installation companies and taking a commission for herself. Her laptop was her office, so she set her own hours and had a small network of temps she hired when needed.

"What's the name?" she asks, her fingers poised over her keyboard until Bonnie answers and she giggles,

"I know the place, that's where Klaus took me on my wedding day,"

"His sister-in-law runs the place." She adds, and she can almost hear the light-bulb ding as Bonnie gets an idea.

"Marcel's inviting him now," she tells her, "So it'll be you, me, probably Katherine, Klaus, some guy he works with…some other people who'll join up…"

"Who knew public humiliation would do such wonders for my social life." Caroline deadpans as her laptop dings with instant messages as she's added to a group chat.

"This'll be fun," Bonnie offers, "Large group setting, no pressure to meet a guy, safe environment…"

Caroline checks her watch and finds herself wondering how Klaus would respond to the idea of their friendship groups hanging out together.

He'd been so adorably pissed off with Rebekah and Kol friending her and their mutual following across most social media platforms, but Rebekah was sweet and Kol took really good photos.

* * *

Caroline Forbes in a private message to Klaus Mikaelson

 _To Klaus: There are some really interesting Kool aid recipes online._

 _From Klaus: There's some really interesting deprogramming articles online._

 _From Klaus: I can send you links to exit strategists that offer a discount if we can convince them that you're escaping a religious cult._

 _To Klaus: So, I'll see you tonight?_

 _From Klaus: Of course, love_

 _From Klaus: I'll be the one trying to alert the authorities using Morse code._

 _To Klaus: Great, see you there.  
_

* * *

A/N- Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N- Enjoy

* * *

One of the downsides to achieving gainful full-time employment which nobody ever mentioned, was that spontaneous catch-ups with friends became a thing of the past.

These days, with everyone on different schedules or scattered across the city, anything that wasn't booked a minimum two weeks in advance wasn't likely to happen.

Especially on weekends, when people already had plans, events to attend or had promised themselves two solid days of relaxation.

So, the fact that Marcel and Bonnie had managed to get a group together with only a few hours' notice, and only a vague 'come out for drinks' plan, was nothing short of miraculous.

For the first time in ages, Caroline was actually checking the clock, waiting for it to strike five pm so she could leave when usually, if she wasn't putting in overtime, Genevieve was kicking her out of the office.

She left her car in the parking lot, deciding that however the night went, she probably wouldn't want to be trying to drive home after a few drinks.

She couldn't remember the last time she had socialised on a weeknight, excluding work events, she and Tyler once had made a point of doing a date night out every month but after a while, life had got in the way.

It had been easier to go home and crash with her fiancée then to drag him out somewhere and deal with him preferring to be on the couch instead.

Her phone is running hot in her hand, her mind landing in the gutter as it buzzers with the consistency of a vibrator. Messages from a newly created group chat detailing everyone's journey across the city, determining whether they would cross paths or wait to meet up at the bar.

Caroline Forbes knows that she's way too much of a control freak to read those messages and not immediately start trying to organise everyone, so she merely glances at the occasional update to ensure the whole thing hasn't been called off and then forcing her thumb against her palm so she didn't type out instructions.

The day was coming to a slow end, the sky still light blue though shot through with streaks of gold, the sidewalks filled with people hurrying home, headphones in and eyes down. Caroline inhales deeply and pretends to be admiring a window display when in fact, she was admiring her own good looks.

Vain yes, but in spite of everything, she looked good dammit.

Okay, maybe a few sleepless nights had taken their toll on her eyes, she was starting to get bags under them, and maybe her face was a little bloated, her skin a little pale, her hair a little…

No. No, she looked amazing considering she was dealing with a lot of stress, and there was nothing she was experiencing right now that a quick trip to her favourite day spa couldn't fix.

When she could afford it.

Maybe a new wardrobe as well?

For her life post-Tyler.

Although the dress she was wearing now must have been good enough, because when the crowds begin to thin out and she gets closer to the bar, she notices that she's drawing appreciative glances from the women on the street, those headed out after work just like her and admiring her outfit like she admires some of theirs.

Though she has a moment of sympathy for the women wearing the very high heels, knowing they'd be sporting blisters at midnight.

* * *

When she enters the restaurant, she immediately glances to the bar and is disappointed not that she doesn't see Sage there, having hoped for the thrill of the familiar face but she gives a small shrug of her shoulders and glances around, scanning the crowd for Bonnie when she spots Klaus instead. He's bracing his hands on the back of a chair, chuckling at something and she starts making her way towards him, shifting through the crowd.

The place is quiet but not dead, people clearly there to chill and catch-up rather than party and hook-up. There is music playing but only for ambience, not to drown out the conversation being had three inches in front of you.

Klaus straightens up and beams when he sees her, "Hello, sweetheart."

She flashes him her own smile and studies the other occupants at the table, Bonnie is sitting with a contented expression on her fresh face, barely betraying the fact that she might not have been home for a few days.

Marcel sitting next to her looking more casually comfortable and dressed than she'd seen him when booking him to cater her wedding and she has a moment where she overthinks about how that fact could hinder any non-professional relationship they try to have moving forward but he has a charming smile and reaches over to shake her hand, making some polite comment about how lovely she looks before he's distracted by Klaus offering to grab the first round.

His back is barely turned before Bonnie is giving her a pointed look and they have a moment of silent communication before she distracts her by asking Marcel how his business was going during wedding season and he launches into a story about one uber-rich wedding he'd catered where they'd demanded all the desserts be painted gold that carries them over until Klaus returns with beer, ciders and another friend of his.

Lucian barely catches her name before he begins flirting outrageously and Caroline counters every remark of his with a sassy shutdown, knowing that when Katherine finally turned up, she'd pull focus immediately.

She leans back in her seat and is content to enjoy the atmosphere, aware of Klaus next to her and she feels a warm pleasure in her stomach when he nudges her slightly with his elbow while reaching for his drink,

"How is work coming along, love?"

"I may have broken a cake decorator today," she admits, "But don't advertise that you do children's birthday cakes unless you have a heart of iron."

He laughs, tilting his head back, "I would love to hear more."

And she believes him, so she's reaching into her mental filing bank for the best catering horror stories she can recall when she realises that she doesn't know what he does for a living.

"Tell me about your job first." she prompts, and he grins,

"Lucien and I do illustration for graphic novels…comic books," he adds, for clarification, "So people assume we are good with children too…"

"Which we are definitely _not!_ " Lucien interrupts, "Terrible with the little buggers."

"We're not with Marvel or DC, any of the big companies," he continues, "Our firm does illustration, publishing and marketing for authors, independent groups, those who would be stuck only publishing online if it weren't for us."

"Nik and I head up the illustration department," Lucien elaborates, "I do the wholesome, progressive stuff and Nik does the women in tight outfits bent over in impractical positions."

Nik threw a wadded-up napkin at Lucien, "He's lying of course," he says to Caroline hurriedly,

"Our CEO is a woman, who started the company to provide options to authors where women aren't drawn or written as they traditionally have been."

She perks up in interest and Nik grins, "Of course, I collect client horror stories with the best of them."

And that sounds like a challenge to Caroline, one she accepts gladly and the two of them spend a good half hour trading ludicrous tales featuring persons who must have completely given up on the concept of reality years ago.

Then Nik goes to the bar for the next round and Bonnie grabs her hand, leading her to the bathroom, and they've barely pushed through the doors before she's staring her down expectantly.

" _What?!_ " Caroline argues, a little defensively as she checks her make-up in the mirror, rearranging her hair while Bonnie's smile grows more and more satisfied.

" _Seriously?!_ " she cries, "What?"

"Katherine said he was gorgeous," Bonnie smirked, "You two seem to like each other and look good together."

"We look good together?" she echoes incredulously, "Um hello? Tyler? He and I broke up like five seconds ago, I shouldn't be looking good with anyone right now!"

Bonnie gave a quick shrug, "And if this had been a regular break-up, I'd be telling you to take some time for yourself, but honestly? The hell with Tyler, Nik is into you, so go have some rebound fun."

Some rebound fun.

It was tempting, Caroline had had just enough alcohol that her inhibitions were lowered but she could still consent, she needed to get over Tyler and the best way to do that would be to have sex with someone else, someone new, and Nik _was_ attractive.

Except…he was also someone she had learnt to trust in the span of a few hours and that was something new for her, she had walked through an area of town she didn't know with him and no means of escape, she had gone home with him completely drunk and vulnerable and known that he wouldn't hurt her.

And he had proven her right.

Yes, she was attracted to him, because he was charming and handsome, and that accent did wonders but she found herself cherishing their relationship too much to throw rebound sex into the mix.

"He's my friend," she declares decisively, "If that changes, I'll let you know, but right now…I'm happy as we are."

* * *

Katherine Pierce wouldn't know how to have a low-key night at a bar if her life depended on it.

Which, if Caroline stopped and thought about it for a second, it probably did.

At the very least, her liver could probably do with a break.

Still, when she shows up it becomes a party, even if it's just confined to their table, somehow the alcohol becomes stronger, the laughter louder and every word just a touch funnier and more flirtatious.

Caroline knows this about her friend, she should have developed even the slightest immunity to it by now, but she wants to pretend that it's this factor, combined with Bonnie's hand very obviously on Marcel's thigh that has her leaning against Nik, has her lowering her voice so that he has to duck his head to hear her, has her leg pressing against his and relishing in the sensation of his rough denim against her skin. His arm is slung over the back of her chair and his knuckles graze her arm when he wants her attention in the few rare moments its not on him.

Around midnight, they find themselves staggering out into the chill night air, Caroline wearing his jacket and she doesn't even register how the group breaks up, only that she and Nik get into an uber alone and sit in the back of the car alone and end up at her front door alone.

She pushes the key into the lock and closes her eyes, her head dropping forward as she takes a steadying breath,

"Tell me this isn't a mistake," she pleads, closing her eyes in shame, unable to look over her shoulder.

" _Please_."

She hears him shift on his feet slightly, "This is whatever you want it to be, Caroline," he murmurs,

"I let you sleep on my couch, it's only fair that you return the favour."

A stab of anxiety tears through her tipsy haze as she tries to remember whether her couch had a pull-out bed in it.

Seriously, was she the kind of woman who didn't buy sofa beds?

Or just the kind of woman who drank until she could no longer remember what kind of furniture she owned.

She exhales, trying to lean into the fact that she was tipsy and not let her anxiety sober her up as she pushes open the door and walks inside. The light switch is to her left and she blinks as it comes on, bright LED bulbs casting away every shadow in the immediate area.

There's the slight chill of a house that's been empty all day, a sterile feeling and she feels self-conscious even as she knows that her living room is pristine and immaculately designed.

"I'd offer you a drink," she says, simply to break the pregnant silence, the heavy anticipation,

"But we both have work tomorrow."

"Have you tried being British?" he jokes, "We can turn up anywhere clearly hungover or still plastered from the night before and provided we aren't actually drinking in the office, get away with it."

"So that's what I've been doing wrong," she replies, snapping her fingers, "All this time spent sober, what a waste."

He chuckles and heads towards her bookshelf, studying the titles and in the light, his hair is especially golden, he looks soft and attractive and…Caroline does have the excuse of being tipsy.

He picks up one book, "Microbiology?" he queries, and she smirks,

"Someone told me I couldn't do microbiology in college, so I took it as an elective and aced it."

He smirks and places it back before picking up another book, "Astrophysics?"

"Different someone but same story, only I had to take the course online because I'd already graduated summa cum laude."

He laughs, turning his face away to try and hide his amusement, but she can see the mischief in his stupidly blue eyes,

"Does that mean whenever someone challenges you, you have to prove them wrong?" he asks, his voice low and his tongue darts out to wet his lips, and that definitely influences Caroline's heart rate,

"Maybe," she teases out the word, sidling over to him, her shoulders back, her hip jutting out and she's watching him through half-closed lids, "Give it a try."

He watches her for a few seconds, studying her before he speaks,

"I bet you can't kiss me," he suggests and even though she had anticipated his words, she still giggles,

"I…" she trails off, shaking her head in amusement before stepping closer, into his space and surrendering to the moment, to the chemistry between them, the attraction that had been there since the first moment they'd had time to consider each other.

She leans close, tilting her face towards his slightly, letting him close the distance and kiss her gently on the lips. There's no immediate surge of crazy, clothes ripping passion, and he doesn't deepen the kiss, or even stick his tongue in her mouth, instead, their lips brush and they continue to share kisses around their smiles, he slides one hand into her hair, another on her hip and she covers the last bit of space between them, resting a hand on his shoulder, feeling his shirt beneath her fingers.

Unfortunately, the lack of clothes tearing passion allows her anxiety time to rear its ugly head and she comes to the realisation that she's kissing another guy in the place she had planned to live with Tyler, who should have been her husband by now and she has to break the kiss, so she can breathe.

Nik is frowning in confusion, pulling back until he sees that she's trembling and puts his hands on her shoulders,

"Breathe sweetheart," he orders, waiting until she's obviously inhaled and exhaled before continuing, "You're safe, it's okay, we're friends and I have no expectations tonight."

She knows this, she understands this on a theoretical level but part of her can't stop thinking about Tyler and she swears that she can see him in the corner of her eye, sitting on the couch watching a football game.

"It's not you," she swears, swallowing back a nervous laugh, "I'm just…I'm not in the right place to be doing this right now."

He nods, stepping back, "Alright, should I put on a pot of tea or call an uber?"

Does she have any tea in the house?

Her anxiety is replaced by exhaustion and she runs a hand through her hair, trying not to yawn as her eyes start to go blurry.

"I know this isn't fair of me to ask," she admits, "But…I want you to stay and this is going to sound crazy but…do you mind sharing a bed with me?"

He exhales, rolling his eyes dramatically, "Well, I was hoping to earn a spot on the couch, but if you insist."

She scoffs and turns around, leading him to her bedroom and dropping onto the bed to take off her shoes,

"I know this is usually the other way around, but I have some shirts and tracksuit pants you could wear."

His eyebrows shoot up, "Should I wear his skin too?"

She snorts, "It's not Tyler's, I buy my sports shirts in men's sizes, a professional NFL player could fit into them."

He seems suspicious but when she opens the drawer to show a sports shirt clearly tangled amidst her other nightwear and has a faint scent of frangipani from her laundry soap, he accepts it and heads into the ensuite to change as she begins removing her makeup with wipes.

He emerges just as she's settling in between the sheets, ready to turn off the bedside lamp and he climbs beneath the duvet with a grunt of relief.

"Goodnight Caroline." He mumbles, closing his eyes.

She smiles into the darkness, enjoying the sense of security and comfort of having another person with her again, "Goodnight Nik."

* * *

A/N- Thanks for reading!


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